Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:45 pm
Continuing her impersonation of fantasy fiction’s “Mouth of Sauron,” Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway claimed on Tuesday’s Today show that the ethics body House Republicans just gutted, the Office of Congressional Ethics, was guilty of being “overzealous†in investigating “consumer complaints.â€
Matt Lauer asked, given Trump’s campaign promise of draining the swamp, doesn’t the Republican gutting of the OCE “do the opposite?” Conway answered, “It does not, Matt,” and complained, “There’s been an overzealousness in some of the processes over the years.”
Watch courtesy of Today:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Do you remember when Newt Gingrich said the way to resolve Donald Trump’s ethical obstacles was to change the rules so he would no longer be violating the law? That’s Conway’s solution too:
“There’s a new office, and this new office will really cut down on the overzealousness. There have been 100 complaints.â€
Well, if the shoe fits…
So rather than just stop being corrupt, the way to fix the House’s corruption problem is to stop complaining about it so much.
Actually, as The Washington Post‘s Sarah Binder tells us in response,
“Contrary to claims Tuesday morning by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, there is little evidence of ‘overzealousness’ of investigations under the current regime.”
Binder goes on to point out the real reason Republicans have chosen this moment to gut the OCE:
“This time, lawmakers — led by legislators targeted by the OCE — have finally gutted the office.”
It is a lot easier to be corrupt if nobody is watching you. This is something Donald Trump understands very well.
This has become an all-too-typical Republican response to rules telling them they’re not allowed to turn their terms into get-rich-quick schemes at the public’s expense.
According to Conway,
“The full Congress will have an opportunity to speak out on this and vote (Tuesday),†so a bunch of Republicans voting to enable Republican corruption means everything will be okay.
Feel better? Of course, you do.
As for what Donald Trump has to say, she assures us, “He is not at the moment, (but) I’m sure that when he feels the urge to weigh in on something he certainly does.â€
As if anyone will be surprised by the ever-corrupt Trump’s support for freedom from ethics oversight. As for Conway, if you parse her words, what you get it that Congress’ ethics watchdog unfairly targeted corrupt Republicans for having no ethics.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
