Today though, I had to actually cackle, like the wicked witch of the west, when I read this article in Wapo.
With the midnight hour approaching on Saturday, Aug. 4, near the end of a marathon session, Democratic and Republican leaders alike wanted to pass the defense appropriations bill quickly and start their summer recess. But Republican Rep. Jeff Flake's stubborn adherence to principle forced an hour-long delay that revealed unpleasant realities about Congress.
Flake insisted on debating the most egregious of the 1,300 earmarks placed in the defense money bill by individual House members that authorize spending in their districts. Defending every such earmark was the chairman of the Appropriations defense subcommittee: Democratic Rep. John Murtha, unsmiling and unresponsive to questions posed on the House floor by Flake. Murtha is called "King Corruption" by Republican reformers, but what happened after midnight on Aug. 5 is not a party matter. Democrats and Republicans, as always, locked arms to support every earmark. It makes no difference that at least seven House members are under investigation by the Justice Department. A bipartisan majority insists on sending taxpayers' money to companies in their districts without competitive bidding or public review.
King of Corruption. I love it. How appropriate. How true.
Claims of newly established transparency were undermined by the late-night follies. Flake, who ran a Phoenix think tank, the Goldwater Institute, before coming to Congress in 2001, is immensely unpopular on both sides of the aisle for forcing votes on his colleagues' pork. He burnished that reputation by prolonging the marathon Saturday session and challenging selected earmarks.
What ensued showed the sham of earmark "reform." With debate on each earmark limited to five minutes per pro and con, and roll calls also pressed into five minutes, the House was mainly interested in finishing up and defeating Flake with huge bipartisan majorities. The mood of annoyance with Flake was personified by the 17-term Murtha, who as subcommittee chairman defended and retained every earmark (including notorious infusions of cash to his Johnstown, Pa., district).
Read the rest...
The man is a menace to the Democratic party.
Blue Crab Boulevard makes a good point.
Robert Novak has an interesting look into the inner workings of the increasingly noisome swamp that is the House of Representatives. In highlighting just one battle over pork-barrel spending, Novak exposes just how bad it has gotten in the House since the Democrats took power. Note that he is not claiming the Republicans are one bit better, mind you. He simply points of how one Congressman, Republican Jeff Flake, has become an object of bipartisan hatred because he tries to stop the pork.
Well said.
Republicans better shape up and join Flake and the other few in opposing earmarks and showing they learned the lesson the voters wanted them to learn about pork and earmarks and transparency.
Some earmarks are worthy, but if it is worthy, it should be able to stand up to scrutiny and get passed on its own merits, not hidden within other important bills.
Congress better start understanding that their approval is at 14% and that means they can still drop even further.
14% further.
.