Captain's Quarters:
All we heard from the Democrats during the 2006 midterm elections was how the Republicans had created a "culture of corruption". The GOP left itself open to those charges, without a doubt, by their profligate spending and individual cases of actual corruption, such as Bob Ney and Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Of course, the Democrats had William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson and Alan Mollohan, but they promised that all lobbyist influence and vote payoff systems would screech to a halt under Democratic management of Congress.
Yesterday gave us two examples of how the Democrats will fulfill this campaign pledge. First, the new Congress still can't get its own members to support even watered-down ethics legislation:
After scrapping most key elements of an ethics package meant to deliver on Democratic promises to bring unprecedented accountability to Congress, party leaders were still working into the night yesterday to sell their stripped-down bill to the rank and file.
With a vote on the bill slated for tomorrow, leading Democrats were fighting yesterday to keep its meatiest remaining piece, a provision unmasking the lobbyists behind bundles of contributions delivered to lawmakers.
But even that faced significant opposition from conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. ...
Resistance springs from a sea change in the business of politics in recent years. Nearly half of the members of Congress who left office between 1998 and 2004 became lobbyists, according to a study by watchdog group Public Citizen. That lure, combined with spiraling campaign costs and lawmakers' reluctance to reveal any links to K Street, have cooled enthusiasm for the lobbying disclosure bill, even as investigations stemming from lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling continue. From:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201394.html?nav=rss_politics
Why don't they want to reveal the bundling lobbyists? Because they want the money. CBC member Sanford Bishop has been tasked with rounding up votes in the caucus, but he's finding it a tough slog. Bishop says members want ethics reform, but not at the expense of campaign contributions, which is somewhat akin to endorsing traffic lights but not tickets for violations.
Rahm Emanuel still believes that he can get the votes to make the ethics bill meaningful. He and Marty Meehan want to offer amendments for everything that the Democrats had to strip out of the bill to get even the meagre support they've received, but that seems like a long shot for success. Even the party leader on pork, John Murtha, calls the bill "total crap".
And he should know. Last night, the Democrats failed to hold him accountable for an egregious ethics violation, one in which he threatened to punish a Republican for challenging a pork project in Murtha's district:
House Democrats spared Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) from a parliamentary slap on the wrist by defeating a resolution aimed at reprimanding him for allegedly threatening to revoke another lawmaker’s earmarks.
Democrats successfully killed the privileged resolution by a vote of 219-189 as Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) joined Democrats to table the motion while Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) and Jim Cooper (Tenn.) voted with the Republicans. Thirteen lawmakers voted present. ...
During the vote, several Democratic lawmakers joked and laughed with Murtha as they sat in the so-called Pennsylvania corner of the House floor. From:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-save-murtha-a-slap-2007-05-23.html
Why bother to even pass this ethics bill? Democrats have conclusively shown that they won't hold their own members accountable for violating the current set of ethics rules. Dana Milbank expands in his inimitable, snarky fashion:
Apparently, the credulous Rogers took seriously the quaint provision in the Code of Official Conduct stating that a member "may not condition the inclusion of language to provide funding for a Congressional earmark . . . on any vote cast by another member." "There's not going to be any more go-along-to-get-along, 1950s-style American politics around here," Rogers told The Post's Jonathan Weisman. "I've had enough."
Maybe Rogers has had enough, but it is the considered sense of the House that the "go-along-to-get-along" method has merit.
The Democrats haven't even spent their first six months in power before reneging on their campaign promises. The culture of corruption is alive and well, just under different management. John Murtha reigns supreme over earmarks, and woe betide the Congressman of either party that dares to cross him.
That's what America wanted when it put Democrats in charge, right? And note that they still haven't delivered a single item on their 100-hour legislative agenda. They're not just a Do-Nothing Congress; they're also a See-Nothing, Say-Nothing Congress.
Got the stomach for more?
http://majorityap.com/freshmen_fail_first_ethics_test
And before we get the tired "everybody does it..." relativist bullshtein... this issue of character was in large part what the Democrats used to get elected. "Everybody does it" was not an exasperated acknowledgment of politics as usual on both sides of the aisle, as there was certainly no room to excuse any Republican under that license.
And "everybody lies"...OK, true enough, but as I've said before, the Democrats think
you're stupid and lie so brazenly right to your face, under cover of an indulgent and aprosexic media.
BTW, Democratic-controlled Congress is enjoying approval ratings several points lower than the much-reported President's.
JP