CNN Online
June 20, 2006
AUSTIN, Texas (CREATORS)
-- Gee, the Republicans seem to have lost their moral compass since Tom
DeLay quit. Who knew it could get worse without that pillar of
rectitude from Texas? What a snakes' nest of corruption and nastiness.
The latest involves Speaker Denny Hastert and a land deal.
Hastert had sold to a developer a 69-acre portion of a 195-acre farm
that had been purchased in his wife's name. The developer also
purchased an adjacent plot of roughly equal size owned in trust by
Hastert and two of his "longtime supporters." The area of west of
Chicago is growing madly, and Hastert -- through an earmark
appropriation process -- dedicated $207 million in taxpayer dollars as
the first appropriation on the Prairie Parkway, which will run 5.5
miles from the Hastert land. Went through in the fall of 2005. Three
months later, Hastert and his partners sold the land for a $3 million
total profit, $1.8 million to Hastert.
In a staggering display of brass-faced gall, Hastert is now claiming a
freeway running 5.5 miles from his land is not close enough to affect
the price of the farm. Then what did the developer pay the extra $3
million for? Hastert is said to be furious with the Sunlight
Foundation, which broke the story, and the Chicago newspapers, which
pounced on it gleefully. This is what I don't get about Republicans.
Apparently they think they are genuinely entitled to get these special
deals.
Also making news is California Rep. Jerry Lewis, who is in deep with a
lobbying firm that is El Stinko. This wouldn't matter so much if Lewis
were just another congressman, but he is chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee, the one that hands out the money. Lewis'
family and friends have profited nicely from contractors and lobbyists
who court his favor. Such cozy arrangements.
Just for example, one Lewis aide, who had gone to work for the lobbying
firm and then returned to the congressman's staff, was paid $2 million
by the firm in 2004 while on the public payroll.
With a fine sense of ethical behavior, members of the House have voted
to continue earmarking, including $500,000 for a swimming pool in
Lewis' district (bringing the total federal money allotted for this
pool to $1 million).
Meanwhile, back on the Jack Abramoff-and-related fronts (lest we forget
good old Dusty Foggo, ex-No. 3 at the CIA), a letter had been found,
despite initial denials by the Department of Homeland Security, from
the now-convicted ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham recommending that the
government use the limo firm that allegedly ferried whores to the poker
parties given by defense contractors who were paying off Cunningham.
Don't Democrats have scandals, too? Yes, Rep. William Jefferson of
Louisiana is in deep doo-doo. Among other things, the Fibbies found
$90,000 in cash in his freezer. So the Democratic caucus kicked him off
his important seat on the Ways and Means Committee. Republicans just
keep on trucking.
Meanwhile, the entire Department of Homeland Security is beginning to
look like a Republican playground. According to The New York Times,
over 90 former officials at DHS or the White House Office of Homeland
Security are now "executives, consultants or lobbyists for companies
that collectively do billions of dollars' worth of domestic security
business." Now isn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
Can Republicans run anything right? Where is the CEO administration
that was supposed to straighten out government? It may be that Bush
deserves credit for having initially opposed a DHS, knowing that
Republicans would make a giant new federal agency. But he later changed
his mind and supported the thing. The rest us thought we were getting
an agency that would provide homeland security, but what an endless
saga of misspent money, stupid decisions, waste, fraud, abuse and
political logrolling -- and still no port protection.
It seems to me there is a direct connection between the Republicans'
inability to run anything governmental ("Heckuva job, Brownie") and the
fact that they don't believe in government. The simplest purposes of
government have long been defined for us -- to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. It is, or should be, a
benign enterprise, making life better for citizens.
I carry no special brief for government -- many years of studying the
Texas Legislature will disenchant anyone. But if you are put in charge
of government, the least you can do is run it well. Bill Clinton took
government seriously -- he was interested in how to make it work
better, interested in government policy. Clinton declared the era of
Big Government over and indeed pruned the federal structure and
finished with a surplus. Bush is giving us fat, bloated, inefficient,
corrupt government, all of it running on a huge deficit -- not counting
the expense and growing body count in Iraq.
As the man said -- "2,500 is just a number."