The blue ribbon ethics committee put in place to insure we have clean government in Washington has found no cause to take action. There are many issues before the committee. Little things like Chris Dodd’s sweetheart mortgage deals, no problem. Charlie Rangle has a cluster of issues, but none that require action.
We watch while Harry Reid cuts deals to get the senate votes for health care reform. Giving Nebraska a pass on Medicaid cost increases isn’t an ethics issue. This helps explain why the committee has taken no action. There is no violation in Washington today that requires a referee to throw a flag. Anything goes.
Over 100 members of congress can travel to Copenhagen on military aircraft to attend a useless boondoggle. Millions of taxpayer dollars spent and nothing accomplished. Many took their entire families. Stayed at the Marriott. Used limos. Enough energy consumed to supply a small town for months. But, the attendees will all support the dangers of climate change and push cap and trade.
Squeaky clean are our elected officials. No need for an ethics panel.
Why is it that a Federal Prosecutor who takes his job seriously in Chicago can keep locking up governors and their staff? Is Chicago different than Washington? Why do the Washington people and the Illinois politicians all want Patrick Fitzgerald gone from Chicago. He is like Sheriff Joe in Arizona, he has gone rouge. He plays by the rules and has no wink reflex. If you are dirty there is a good chance he will catch you and prosecute you. Ask George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, the past two governors he has ,and is ,prosecuting.
Do our elected officials want us to believe that every elected official in Washington is ethical? We deserve better. Never have there been more lobbyists in Washington. What are they doing? Every big mucky duck who leaves the senate or house lands a high-paying job at a law firm in Washington that does lobbying. Daschle is not a registered lobbyist, but he is being paid millions to get health care issues passed by congress. What is he if he isn’t a lobbyist?
We need to demand the ethics committee do what they are supposed to do. Quit playing lawyer with the issues they have before them. Take immediate action and hand out some punishment. Public punishment.
Too many of our elected members of congress are like the maitre ‘d at a fancy restaurant, they have a hand in the middle of their backs to handle the spiff they expect for favors. Yet the foxes in the hen house just keep eating the chickens. But, no foxes are going to rat out a fellow fox.
We can spend billions for nonsense and we can’t have a dozen Patrick Fitzgerald’s in Washington parked like cops with a radar gun enforcing the ethics laws the congress has agreed to follow. Or, when one gets busted, no kangaroo court to pass judgment.
It’s time to clean up this rats nest. I can’t prove ethics violations. But, when a finger gets pointed, and there is no action, this is Chicago before Patrick Fitzgerald. Anything went. Charlie Rangle is dirty. Crooked as a dog’s hind leg. The evidence is before the ethics committee. No action is being taken.
