RIO DE JANEIRO: One by one, Brazilian lawmakers rise on national television, faces red with indignation, voices shaking, to demand impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
The problem with this righteous scene playing out in Brazil throughout this weekend? An astonishing number of those deputies are themselves accused of crimes.
In Brazil's often surreal politics, the oddest -- and most ignored -- aspect is that many of the politicians baying for Rousseff's head should be in as much trouble as she is, or worst.
Rousseff faces impeachment on charges that she illegally used creative accounting to mask government shortfalls during her 2014 reelection. She does not deny this and defends herself saying that previous governments used the same tricks, a mitigating factor that numerous legal experts consider legitimate.
Now consider Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower house of Congress and architect of the impeachment process plunging Brazil into political war.
He has been charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes linked to a massive embezzlement cartel centered on state oil company Petrobras. The Bible-quoting wheeler and dealer allegedly hid the money in Switzerland.
Far from being damaged, Cunha denies the charges and continues to wield huge power, fending off a congressional ethics committee where he is accused of lying about the Swiss accounts. On Sunday, he will oversee the lower house vote on whether to send Rousseff's impeachment case to the Senate.
Meanwhile, Michel Temer -- the vice president who turned on Rousseff and would become interim president if the Senate opens a trial -- is alleged to have been involved in illegal ethanol dealings.
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