This was sent to me today, and it describes the Gooper takeover in Washington DC. Some of the members of Congress who secretly voted to close the Ethics Office had been investigated for ethics lapses in the past. Now they can be as dishonest as they please and get away with it.Make America Great Again!
UPDATE:
WASHINGTON ― After a torrent of bad headlines, countless phone calls to member offices, and two tweets from President-elect Donald Trump, House Republicans dropped their plans to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics Tuesday, just minutes before the House was set to gavel in for the 115th Congress and adopt their rules package for the next two years. The amendment ― authored by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) ― would have placed the independent congressional ethics office under the oversight of the House Ethics Committee, changed the OCE’s name and barred the office from releasing reports to the public. In effect, it would have neutered Congress’ most aggressive watchdog. The decision to strip the Goodlatte amendment came just before noon on Tuesday as Republicans planned to begin the 115th Congress. Earlier in the day, responding to numerous news reports about Republicans gutting the OCE, Trump asked in a tweet whether Republicans really had to make the “weakening” of the ethics office their first order of business, though he also didn’t necessarily come out against the idea of eventually overhauling the OCE.
11 comments:
Why not close it because by keeping it open you give the impression that congress has ethics.
When was the last time they took action above a slap on the wrist? Chris Dodd for illegal personal loans - nope, Charlie Rangal for accepting bribes- nope, Barney Frank for giving his lover a federal job to do nothing - nope, Maxiene Waters for employing her family and they do nothing plus being the stupidest member of congress - nope.
They haven't done anything since Spiro Agnew.
If they don't close that office how are they going to keep up with a prez elect who has 2 or 3 (at least) scandals going before he even takes office.
Thanks for the link in the post below. I hadn't seen that Sean Spicer had complained about the meangirls making fun of poor Donnie.
"The Republican Party has ceased to represent conservatism and come full-circle to be the party of authoritarianism and corruption. We shouldn't expect the OCE to be the last casualty of their mission to eliminate oversight of their actions. Freedom of the press is likely to be curtailed, and I wouldn't be surprised if the GAO is gutted as well. But the bigger question is how much the people who have voted these crooks into power will tolerate the erosion of the freedom and democracy they purport to cherish. My guess is, they won't mind authoritarianism until they find themselves on the receiving end of it, when the institutions that would have protected them have been long-since defanged with their enthusiastic support." via AD
Skudrunner is so marinated in partisan hackery that he actually believes only Democrats have been involved in questionable ethics violations and crimes:
Washington (CNN) Embattled GOP US Rep. Aaron Schock announced Tuesday he would resign his seat at the end of the month, in the wake of a congressional ethics investigation into reports that he used taxpayer money to fund lavish trips and events.
Michael Grimm, for GOP US Representative from Staten Island, NY, sentenced to 8 months in prison for fraud and tax evasion.
In 1997, Newt Gingrich was the first speaker of the House, ever, to be punished by the House for ethics violations.
Tom DeLay, a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas from 1979–83, and from 1985–2006 and the House Majority Leader from 2003–05, was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities aimed at helping Republican candidates for Texas state office in the 2002
Almost everyone who keeps up with anti-gay republicans caught engaging in gay sex remembers GOP Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig, the senator who repeatedly voted against LGBT rights, but was then caught toe-tapping in an airport bathroom.
And speaking of MAJOR CROOKS of the GOP: Richard M. Nixon -- the only U.S. president to have resigned in disgrace.
Skud, like Trump, you're an easy target.
Like I said Shaw, none in congress have ethics. They are representatives for hire and until the American voter says enough and throws them all out that won't change.
Nixon resigned he was not thrown out. Clinton was impeached and he remained. At least Clinton, Bill that is, was a captivating speaker and did some good for everyone.
Both sides need to back away from the partisan politics and hold our elected elite accountable.
Trump makes Nixon look like a saint Shaw. Would you agree?
RN, Nixon was a deeply insecure, but he was a smart insecure man. Nixon was no dummy. What a shame his insecurities ruined him.
Trump, OTOH, is corrupt and insure and doesn't know jack about governing or anything about our American history. He knows how to judge beauty pageants, assault women, build casinos and go bankrupt, and tweet in 140 characters, though. That should make us all feel that the country is in competent hands, eh?
Skud, this is what I wrote about Nixon:
And speaking of MAJOR CROOKS of the GOP: Richard M. Nixon -- the only U.S. president to have resigned in disgrace.
Clinton was impeached, charged with misconduct, but he was acquitted on all charges.
skud,
Nixon resigned because he preferred resignation to impeachment and conviction.
Clinton preferred not to resign, and was impeached. However the senate did not convict him. He legally remained.
Since Nixon came up here just want to link to this post at Charles Pierce's today. As far as we know Trump hasn't done anything that evil yet.
From Kevin's link:
A newfound cache of notes left by H. R. Haldeman, his closest aide, shows that Nixon directed his campaign's efforts to scuttle the peace talks, which he feared could give his opponent, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, an edge in the 1968 election. On Oct. 22, 1968, he ordered Haldeman to "monkey wrench" the initiative… Haldeman's notes return us to the dark side. Amid the reappraisals, we must now weigh apparently criminal behavior that, given the human lives at stake and the decade of carnage that followed in Southeast Asia, may be more reprehensible than anything Nixon did in Watergate.
What an evil fck. What an unimaginably evil fck the man was.
"! Keep Anna Chennault working on" South Vietnam, Haldeman scrawled, recording Nixon's orders. "Any other way to monkey wrench it? Anything RN can do." Nixon told Haldeman to have Rose Mary Woods, the candidate's personal secretary, contact another nationalist Chinese figure — the businessman Louis Kung — and have him press Thieu as well. "Tell him hold firm," Nixon said.
Go ahead. Tell me again about the opening to China, and the EPA, and all the rest of it. This is pure treason, worse than anything Aaron Burr ever tried, beyond anything for which Nixon pursued bureaucrats during his Red-hunting days.
"In a conversation with the Republican senator Everett Dirksen, the minority leader, Johnson lashed out at Nixon. "I'm reading their hand, Everett," Johnson told his old friend. "This is treason." "I know," Dirksen said mournfully."
Just shows how GOPers cheat to win the presidency. There's a lot of evidence out there that shows Reagan committed treason as well in order to get elected.
And now Trump, using a foreign country hostile to America cheated his way into the presidency as well. We know for a fact that a majority of the American people didn't vote for him, so he had to have his buddy, Vlad, hack the DNC so Donnie Little Hands would win.
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