Reign of Corruption: Afghanistan? No the United States of America
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This country is throwing billions of dollars and our best and brightest into a futile attempt to combat corruption in Afghanistan.
Some of the money and effort would be vastly better spent in trying to control corruption in this country.
Actually, impeachment is probably the only solution to the corruption Sen. Joe Lieberman brings to the nation.
At the very least, the Connecticut shyster should recuse himself from the health care debate.
Charlie Rangel is another similar story. Charlie, were he not a powerful chairman of a House committee, could well have been sent to jail for his tax avoidance.
Actually, what Lieberman is doing (blatantly pandering to the insurance industry) is probably legal. However, it should be illegal to take money in exchange for taking a particular legislative stand.
What Charlie has done is definitely illegal, and the House Ethics Committee needs to get going on his prosecution.
Democrats like Rep. Barbara Lee, chair of the House Black Caucus, are only hurting their own party by protecting Rep. Rangel.
There is no party label on corruption, but the Dems won the last election promising to clean up Washington. If it doesn't happen, and soon, they will be broomed, too, with well-deserved voter disapproval.
It may be that the Dems are trying to get the Health Care bill through with Charlie's help before throwing him under the bus. But that is no excuse for tolerating violations of the law for which an ordinary citizen would immediately be held liable.
"Not The First Time Joe Has Shilled for Insurers," headlined the New York Daily News, noting that Lieberman threw a monkey wrench into Hillary Clinton's health care reform efforts more than a decade ago.
"He married a Pharma lobbyist, took a million dollars from the insurance industry and got kicked out of his party. In other words, he's a spiteful old man who went to bed with the enemy, took their money and now is angry at Democrats," said David Sirota, the author, columnist and progressive political operative who worked on behalf of challenger Ned Lamont to unseat Lieberman in 2006.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/10/not-the-first-time-joe-has-shi.html#ixzz0VLYg26cn
We need new laws. Abuse of power should be the cardinal sin of a democratic society. It's probably not a crime to be a John Edwards or an Eliott Spitzer, but they paid for their sins by becoming politically irrelevant.
Lieberman and Rangel are still in the ballgame, wielding bigger bats than ever. Charlie, bless his hypocritical soul, has the gall to introduce a bill (a good idea nevertheless) to stop offshore tax cheating. But Good Lord, how can he keep a straight face on the floor of Congress while his own tax avoidance remains unresolved?
Let's not even go there re Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana or Larry Craig of Idaho. They remain in power until the voters toss them out for their sexual peccadilloes.
What all this proves is that our system doesn't really work if you have money or power. We need to make changes to make it work. Otherwise, our democracy is a sham. ###
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Dave Rogers |
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