Republicans point figure at Democrats for economic woes.

Byline: William Neikirk

WASHINGTON _ Seeking to limit the political damage from the economy's stumbles and the stock market's swoon, Republicans have made shifting the blame to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, an integral part of their strategy.

A recurrent theme in recent Republican rhetoric has been "Blame it on the bubble," a reference to the 1990s boom in economic growth and stock prices when Clinton was in the White House.

Clinton is criticized by some Republicans for creating an environment of lax ethics that, critics say, led to the loosening of corporate standards that exploded in a series of scandals during the Bush administration.

"I think we all need to take a look at what led to the scandals in the first place," Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., said recently on the House floor. "The excesses of the decade of the `90s clearly got out of hand _ so much so, in fact, that decade is well known as the decade of irresponsibility."

Bush also has joined in, saying in a July 15 speech in Alabama that the economy is nursing a "hangover as a result of the binge," suggesting that a time of irresponsible self-indulgence…