Both houses of Congress have now passed the ethics and lobby reform bill, the House by 411-8 and the Senate by 83-14. All of the Senators from Missouri or Kansas voted in favor of this, as did almost every Representative in the House.
In my opinion, this bill was a joke. It wasn't harmful, as such, but it doesn't really accomplish anything other than allowing these Congresspeople to say they did something on ethics reform. Now, they're going around trumpeting their 'bipartisan willingness' to 'increase transparency' and 'reduce corruption' in Congress, when the reality is that nothing has really changed. In other words, they think you're too stupid to figure out that they've done nothing.
But, there are other reasons both sides of the aisle wanted this. The Democrats are desperate to get any legislation passed (since they've managed to fail at just about everything they've tried so far) before the August recess. More disturbingly from the conservative point of view, the Republicans seem to lack any spine, failing to stand up for one of the core principles that used to define the Republican party. The Democrats have always been tax-and-spend; no one who knows anything about politics would dispute that. The Republicans used to be the opposite, standing for lower taxes and less spending (and, by extension, tightened restrictions on earmarks). At least, they were until just the last few years. This bill is an indication of just how far away from their roots the current Republicans in leadership have gotten, and that does not bode well for a rebound in 2008.
It would be so nice to see more than just a handful of our representatives actually attempt to restore honor to the representation of the American people rather than turn a blind eye to buy-offs and rampant spending. And, from the Republican side, it would be great to see more than a handful actually stand for what made the party great. Sadly, there is a leadership vacuum that truly needs to be filled.
There's my two cents.
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