Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Corruption Has No Party Loyalty

Nancy Pelosi has been wagging her finger a lot lately (Harry Reid a lot less...); pointing out the “culture of corruption” she claims has an exclusive grip on the GOP.

Apparently, Mrs. Pelosi has chosen to overlook a spate of Democratic malfeasance occurring right underneath her nose. To name a few:

· Rep. William "How'd that cash get in my freezer?" Jefferson’s (LA) $100,000 cold hard cash bribery scandal (while the Congressman continues lying and stonewalling);

· Rep. Alan Mollohan’s (WV) laundry list of financial improprieties involving nonprofit organizations receiving millions of dollars in federal funds while he was involved in real estate deals with officials from those groups. Mollohan has since stepped down from his post on the ethics committee and is now being asked to step down from his position on the appropriations committee;

· And, all the way to the top, with news that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accepted free ringside tickets to three boxing matches from the Nevada Athletic Commission, while the agency was trying to influence him on boxing regulation. (To make matters worse, two Republicans who attended the fights with Reid dealt with matters above deck—Sen. John McCain insisted on paying for his tickets, while Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), recused himself from participating in Reid's pending legislation.) All this, on top of Harry Reid’s involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal where he swung the bat on behalf of a number of the disgraced lobbyist’s clients.

There’s no question that corruption exists in Congress. A thorough clean-up is long overdue. And Denny Hastert’s dopey rush to impugn the FBI’s handling of the William Jefferson investigation was nauseating and emblematic of this problem.

In fact, Hastert’s pathetic, meathead, numbnut, first response to defend “Cold Cash” Jefferson, and attack the FBI G-Men, is just about the worst, most absurd political thing I’ve seen in ages.

When I first read Hastert's ridiculous response, the first thought that sprung to my mind was, “You know what? You Republicans don’t deserve to be in the majority in the House. You deserve to lose.”

Oh, and by the way, I’m still waiting for the "Great Budget Earmark Reform" to stop the corrupt lobbyist cash for legislative favors that has exploded in recent years.

You know, with a Democratic House and Senate majority, one that will undoubtedly legislate higher taxes and higher spending, George Bush will become the great “Veto-Man”. Maybe he’ll look a lot more like Grover Cleveland, the greatest veto man in Presidential history; and a lot less like The Great Society man LBJ.

(In fact, Grover Cleveland, who was free trader and wanted lower tariffs, stuck by the gold standard, and vetoed spending, is one of one of our most underrated presidents of all time.)

As for Nancy Pelosi; she has it all wrong--again. This corruption nonsense knows no party loyalty.