Today, Republicans and Democrats stood at separate podiums and claimed that they're not playing politics with the Robutrad scandal.

Of course they are.

Are we really to believe that Republicans aren't using the situation to cast themselves as the principled defenders of good government, ever vigilant for the taxpayers they are sworn to protect? Or that Democrats aren't using the charges and allegations against a former county employee as fodder for claims that Republican county officials are abdicating their oversight roles or fostering a pay-to-play environment?

Each side basically said as much during dueling press conferences this afternoon, both dealing with County Executive Maggie Brooks' announcement that the county is ending its contract with Robutrad. As much as legislators like to say that they are in the business of governing and that politics should be put aside to resolve various issues, the reality is that they have a political job; politics infiltrates everything they do. So when a major scandal breaks loose, Democrats and Republicans are going to drag politics into it, even if they do so unwittingly. They should just be honest about that.

As a side note, Brooks said during her press conference that more Democrats than Republicans have been arrested during the ongoing Robutrad investigation. That Brooks brought that up is troubling - it implies that either she or someone else checked the party registration of each person charged in the investigation.