Weeper of the House Crying Over Strict Ethics Rules
What the Republicans Didn’t Tell You About Their Plan
I’m sure you’ve heard all about how incoming House Republican majority are going to end earmarks and reform DC, even as they staff up using K streeters and lobbyists. But don’t despair, they say they’re going to put bills online so’s everyone can read them unlike ObamaCares! I’m guessing none of them ever got the memo that the many bills for ObamaCares were online as well as provided to them months in advance, but when reading is not your forte, can you be blamed for your willful ignorance?
I say no!
Vote in some refreshing Tea Partiers to shake things up! Hell yeah! In other words, they’re going to do the things Obama already did and take credit for it. But then…to really shake things up, to really clarify what it means to be Republican, they’re going to get rid of the Office of Congressional Ethics. You know, the people who police the House.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
And here you thought that country club weeper Boehner wasn’t going to appease the Tea Party. This is sort of what they said they wanted, only NOT.
“There is no pledge here to deal with ethics issues in a positive way, period,” Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute said.
Oh, Norm. Don’t be so stodgy! What could be more positive than getting rid of Congressional Ethics policing all together? Gosh, this would so help out some of Boehner’s best friends like Nathan Deal, the now Governor of Georgia who had to resign the House just this year after being found guilty of several ethics violations. I mean, how unfair and unTea Partyish can you be?
Tea Party means a free for all, laissez-faire government run amok! No rules, baby. No regulations. No ethics. All lobbyists all the time! A candy store without run by sugar-addicts. What can go wrong?
I guess the Tea Partiers weren’t paying attention when they bought into the Freedom Works funded propaganda about their faux populist movement. The GOP is done rebranding themselves, Tea Party, so you can go home now. And please go quietly.
Except the Tea Party Patriots aren’t going to go away so easily. They already sent out a memo charging, “D.C. insiders, the RNC, and lobbyists are already trying to push the tea party aside and co-opt the incoming congressmen.” Ah, Tea Party. That’s cute. Did you really think things were going to be different by electing people who told you they weren’t corrupt? My my, Dorothy.
If only the Tea Party had followed the money like the evil liberal elite warned. If only they had listened. If only this had really been about the things they said it was about. We could have all jumped on board together to protest Bush’s Wall Street bailout instead of protesting heatlhcare for the people. But it looks like the Tea Party let Sarah Palin use them, and now find themselves dangling over the irrelevant cliff. Talk about getting used hard and tossed away wet.
And you wondered what the Weeper of the House was going to do for you! He’s going to, well, protect his buddies, that’s what.
The National Journal reports:
“Reform advocates plan a Capitol Hill press conference this week to call on Boehner and his colleagues not to shut down the OCE, but few expect it to stay open. Boehner and most of the other House Republicans voted against the OCE’s creation two years ago……
Asked about the OCE, Buck (spokesman for the transition team) said that Boehner will “take a look at current ethics rules” but that ethics “has really not been the focus of our transition efforts.” GOP leaders probably won’t vote publicly to kill the OCE but will simply quietly defund it next year, said John Wonderlich, policy director of the Sunlight Foundation.”
Yes, see, they’re not even going to tell you they’re getting rid of the Ethics Committee. That’s how open they’re going to be! Already, reform has come to DC! Thank you Tea Party.
Things are sure different now.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
