Apparently not Congress.
A Senate committee yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to establish an independent office to oversee the enforcement of congressional ethics and lobbying laws, signaling a reluctance in Congress to beef up the enforcement of its rules on lobbying.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 11 to 5 to defeat a proposal by its chairman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), that would have created an office of public integrity to toughen enforcement and combat the loss of reputation Congress has suffered after the guilty plea in January of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats joined Republicans in killing the measure.
Congress does have perfect track record with this, after all. You won't hear me say this often, but "Way to go, Joe."
And I don't know what the Democrats were thinking. If we actually solve the problem we can't bitch about it until November?
Members of Congress have spent the better part of a decade unwilling to file ethics reports on each other. This was a sensible solution, an independent agency that would keep the truce in place while still allowing members to be investigated for the kind of Boss Hogg-type shit they pull on a daily basis. And it failed spectacularly.
That leaves only one option left. The American people actually have to get up and get intersted in what their elected representatives are doing in Washington, and then throw bums like Cunningham and DeLay out on their ass. If we don't elect them, they can't do this stuff. More and more, though, I wonder just how long it will take for voters to stop buying the bullshit and start dishing out the ass-whoopings.
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