Jan 06 2006
Clean House Reps
For me, being a local to DC, the Abramoff debacle was simply waiting to happen. People are notoriously competitive and greedy (though it is really just vanity over status symbols like cars and where your home is). So I am not surprised Abramoff tried to out bribe the lobbyists. I like to see a little house cleaning once in a while -refocuses the minds in Congress on where they should be.
When Randy’Duke’ Cunnigham admitted he took bribes, my position was so sad, to bad, accept your consequences.
Whether Tom Delay comes back or not is a mixed bag with me. The charges are trumped up and we need to step up and defend people who are being bullied by people abusing their office. So if cleared, I think he should have a shot at his leadership position. This was not a case of Delay going close to the edge – it was Emporer Earle deciding he was the law of the land.
But overall these are personal challenges members need to deal with. DC politics ain’t bean bag.
John McIntyre at Real Clear Politics has a great post on things to do to clean up Congress – and I back each and every one. Abramoff may be a silver lining yet. We can get some people playing too lose with the rules out, and we can get some serious reform back into Congress. Time for another Contract with America – to clean up their act!
I especially like the David Brook’s list of things to fix things in the House:
Earmarks are the provisions that single members can stick into gigantic bills to steer spending toward favored projects. They’re an invitation to corruption. If individual members of Congress can control $100 million federal contracts or billion-dollar pork barrel projects, then of course companies are going to find ways to funnel graft to those members.
To prove they’re serious about special-interest spending, Republicans could declare a one-year earmark moratorium until they get a handle on this problem. Or they could promote legislation mandating that earmarks eat up only 1 percent of any spending bill’s total cost.
Just a taste, please read the whole thing and, if you agree, put some pressure on your Representatives to consider these changes.
More here at the WSJ:
Here’s a better strategy: Banish the Abramoff crowd from polite Republican society, and start remembering why you were elected in the first place.
Short, simple and the right thing to do.
Abramoff is a crook.
But what could make things worse is if the GOP begins a witch hunt – and of course, while Tom DeLay is under that cloud, it’s easy to take shots at him (not to mention it’s a good way for someone like Gingrich to get face time on the networks).
Even Gingrich was in large part, acquitted of the ethics charges made agaisnt him – and what they did hit him with was arguably some minor details.
What has happened, starting in earnest with Iran-contra, is that the Democrats have tried to make pursuing a Republican agenda a criminal offense. Even when a Republican is trying to protect the country from terrorist attacks, the Democrats consider it criminal. Since November, 1986, that has been one of their tools, and the Republicans do not show any signs of adjusting to it.
We cannot let a Ronnie Earle hold congressional leaders hostage.
I’m sure you meant by your headline an abbreviation of Representatives. Unfortunately, too many might misconstrue it as a subliminal validation of the partisan view that the Abramoff affair is exclusively a REPublican scandal.