Corruption in D.C.
The incomparable Jack Kelly points out that -- irony of ironies! -- the renegade Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle may have done Republicans a great favor by helping them remove Tom DeLay from his leadership post with a minimum of internecine warfare.
What's more, Kelly tells the truth about Washington: The crime isn't what's illegal, it's what's legal.
For my part, I don't totally fault DeLay and other Republicans for having worked to turn K Street (home of lobbyists) from a Democratic to a Republican bastion. Dems can cry all they want about the allegedly unenlightened voters in Kansas who are supposedly acting contrary to their own best interests, but it's always seemed irrational to me that companies would want to support (through their lobbyists or otherwise) a party that wants nothing more than to impose ever-increasing amounts of taxes and regulations upon them. Nonetheless, the K Street community was dominated by Democrats at least through 1995.
As for the K Street project overall, Republican success at infiltrating and "flipping" the lobbyist community -- insofar as it removed a key Democratic power bastion -- no doubt has been a key element in Republicans hanging on to Congress for the past 12 years. And the Democrats still have the Washington press corps on their side . . .
But again, the fact is that the best answer is to devolve power from Washington back to the states. The problem is that it's a strategy that few Washington politicians who intend to make a career inside the beltway are likely to embrace. Which is why, as Kelly points out, we still need term limits, perhaps now more than ever.
What's more, Kelly tells the truth about Washington: The crime isn't what's illegal, it's what's legal.
For my part, I don't totally fault DeLay and other Republicans for having worked to turn K Street (home of lobbyists) from a Democratic to a Republican bastion. Dems can cry all they want about the allegedly unenlightened voters in Kansas who are supposedly acting contrary to their own best interests, but it's always seemed irrational to me that companies would want to support (through their lobbyists or otherwise) a party that wants nothing more than to impose ever-increasing amounts of taxes and regulations upon them. Nonetheless, the K Street community was dominated by Democrats at least through 1995.
As for the K Street project overall, Republican success at infiltrating and "flipping" the lobbyist community -- insofar as it removed a key Democratic power bastion -- no doubt has been a key element in Republicans hanging on to Congress for the past 12 years. And the Democrats still have the Washington press corps on their side . . .
But again, the fact is that the best answer is to devolve power from Washington back to the states. The problem is that it's a strategy that few Washington politicians who intend to make a career inside the beltway are likely to embrace. Which is why, as Kelly points out, we still need term limits, perhaps now more than ever.
posted by LadybugUSA at 1:08 PM
2 Comments:
"The incomparable Jack Kelly points out that -- irony of ironies! -- the renegade Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle may have done Republicans a great favor by helping them remove Tom DeLay from his leadership post with a minimum of internecine warfare."
And an even greater irony in all this is that if the the Republican caucus had their way, Tom Delay would still be House Majority leader. Last January the Republican caucus approved the "Delay Rule," which would have allowed those indicted to retain their leadership position in the House. It was only the firestorm ignited and fed by the left-wing blogosphere and the Democrats on the Hill that got the Delay rule revoked.
I'm getting pretty fed up with all of the corrupt dealings going on with both parties in DC. But doesn't it always come back to Lord Acton's "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." We really need lobby reform. And we need term limits for numerous reasons. I wonder why the Democrats never worked on these problems when they had the majority for 50 years? The "Delay Rule" was reversed by none other than Tom Delay, which was the right thing to do. Even though indictments don't mean guilt. Mr. Twister, can you name one Democrat that has made a mistake? And even more rare, a Democrat that made a mistake and later admitted the mistake? I'll give you a hint: don't google for "Ted Kennedy". And if you want to reverse on me, I'll name two, Bush 43 (more than once), and Cunningham.
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