Politicians without a party

Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but I have a feeling the White House has issued a new dictate to the press. I suspect they've told the press not to mention the party affiliation of Republicans who get into newsworthy trouble. Here's one example from today's news:

WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Ryun (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday denied allegations by Democrats that he received a "sweet real estate deal" when he purchased a town house from a nonprofit group with connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Kansas Republican bought the historic Capitol Hill town house for $410,000 on Dec. 15, 2000. That was $19,000 less than the U.S. Family Network paid for the home about two years earlier, in January 1999, despite a sharp rise in local real estate values during that time.

Usually, you would see the first line written, "Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kansas) ...", but not here. Not now that he's in trouble. Now, he's just Rep. Jim Ryun. No party. No state.

Last night, Josh Marshall noted that ABC had failed to give the party affiliation of Jack Abramoff in its story on his sentencing. Just good old everyday citizen, Jack Abramoff.

Given the Republicans' penchant for getting into trouble, I suspect the ranks of these partyless politicians will grow rapidly.

[It's a bit strange, but I've also noticed that most (based on a very non-random non-scientific sample) Republican Congressmen don't list their party affiliation at their campaign websites whereas most Democrat Congressmen do. Take a look and see if this holds true for your own Congressman.]