Looking At Washington - Republican Leadership
We at Obey Out like to dedicate most of our time to the proposition of defeating Dave Obey. It's not only a worthwhile goal, it's necessary if we ever want to have a Representative in Washington who actually reflects the people he represents. We do feel though, that the House Republican Leadership races caused by the indictment of Tom DeLay and his subequent standing down from his Majority Leader position will have a tremendous impact on the national atmosphere for Republicans.
According to the www.diageohotlinepoll.com, 49% of Americans believe it is likely that their Member of Congress has been involved in some kind of illegal activity. While we think that is ridiculous, 71% of Americans think it is likely that Republican Members of Congress have been involved in illegal activities and 63% of Americans feel the same about Democrats.
Now, Republican leaders have come out with an ethics reform package as have the Democrats. You can bet with almost absolute certainty, that Democrats will do everything they can to bottle up the Republican bill because Democrats don't want to solve any problems, they want the issue for the November elections. [as an aside, we don't believe any set of rules will stop rule breakers from breaking them. some simple reforms like full and timely disclosure of all lobbying expenditures and accountability for pork projects inserted into bills at the last minute would probably shed a little much needed light on Washington. otherwise, money is like water, if you shut it off in one place, it will find somewhere else to flow.]
In fact, Democrats don't really want the rules changed at all. Of all the privately-funded trips taken over the last several years, Democrats took 49% of them (Obey has been all over the world through trips paid for by a so-called foundation made up of big business donors who go along on the trips to curry favor with Members like Obey). Democrats put earmarks in appropriations bills whenever they can (in fact, Dave Obey gets a certain allocation from the Republican Chairman, and can dole those out as favors to Democrats in the House). You will also find that Democrats (see Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) squeeze PACs and lobbyists for campaign contributions just as hard as they can. Remember that Pelosi got in trouble for setting up two leadership PACs so she could double-dip for contributions.
That leads us back to the point. If Democrats won't let any real reforms pass because they want to campaign on the issue while still taking the free steaks and trips (which we don't have a problem with so long as they're disclosed to the people they represent), then how can Republicans climb back on to the high ground when it comes to ethics in Washington? Simple, change the leadership. Tom DeLay hand-picked Roy Blunt and Deborah Pryce to be the Majority Whip and Conference Chairman. Roy Blunt hand-picked Eric Cantor to be the Chief Deputy Whip. The worst position Republicans can put themselves in is to become the "more of the same" Party.
Hopefully, when Republicans reconvene in two weeks, they will first, call for a full slate of elections for leadership.
Then, they should elect John Shadegg (we would prefer Boehner to Blunt as well, but Boehner had his shot in Leadership before) for Majority Leader.
They should elect Todd Tiahrt as Majority Whip (this was a close call for us as we really like Zach Wamp and believe Mike Rogers is a nice guy too. However, Wamp tends to go off the reservation at times, and Rogers is conservative out of convenience. Yet, any of these three must be put in over Eric Cantor.)
Finally, in a surprise move, the Conference should elect Jack Kingston as the new Conference Chairman. (Deborah Pryce was a puppet of DeLay and adds no value to the team, in addition to being an activist pro-choice supporter.)
If Republicans show the courage of their convictions to put a truly new team in place to show the American people they are serious about change, that they just aren't playing "more of the same" politics, we can have a more positive atmosphere here in Wisconsin. Then we can focus on the Obey DC-lobbyist funded campaign and travel, which is apparently ok if he does it (as well as the rest of his bad record for Wisconsin).
According to the www.diageohotlinepoll.com, 49% of Americans believe it is likely that their Member of Congress has been involved in some kind of illegal activity. While we think that is ridiculous, 71% of Americans think it is likely that Republican Members of Congress have been involved in illegal activities and 63% of Americans feel the same about Democrats.
Now, Republican leaders have come out with an ethics reform package as have the Democrats. You can bet with almost absolute certainty, that Democrats will do everything they can to bottle up the Republican bill because Democrats don't want to solve any problems, they want the issue for the November elections. [as an aside, we don't believe any set of rules will stop rule breakers from breaking them. some simple reforms like full and timely disclosure of all lobbying expenditures and accountability for pork projects inserted into bills at the last minute would probably shed a little much needed light on Washington. otherwise, money is like water, if you shut it off in one place, it will find somewhere else to flow.]
In fact, Democrats don't really want the rules changed at all. Of all the privately-funded trips taken over the last several years, Democrats took 49% of them (Obey has been all over the world through trips paid for by a so-called foundation made up of big business donors who go along on the trips to curry favor with Members like Obey). Democrats put earmarks in appropriations bills whenever they can (in fact, Dave Obey gets a certain allocation from the Republican Chairman, and can dole those out as favors to Democrats in the House). You will also find that Democrats (see Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) squeeze PACs and lobbyists for campaign contributions just as hard as they can. Remember that Pelosi got in trouble for setting up two leadership PACs so she could double-dip for contributions.
That leads us back to the point. If Democrats won't let any real reforms pass because they want to campaign on the issue while still taking the free steaks and trips (which we don't have a problem with so long as they're disclosed to the people they represent), then how can Republicans climb back on to the high ground when it comes to ethics in Washington? Simple, change the leadership. Tom DeLay hand-picked Roy Blunt and Deborah Pryce to be the Majority Whip and Conference Chairman. Roy Blunt hand-picked Eric Cantor to be the Chief Deputy Whip. The worst position Republicans can put themselves in is to become the "more of the same" Party.
Hopefully, when Republicans reconvene in two weeks, they will first, call for a full slate of elections for leadership.
Then, they should elect John Shadegg (we would prefer Boehner to Blunt as well, but Boehner had his shot in Leadership before) for Majority Leader.
They should elect Todd Tiahrt as Majority Whip (this was a close call for us as we really like Zach Wamp and believe Mike Rogers is a nice guy too. However, Wamp tends to go off the reservation at times, and Rogers is conservative out of convenience. Yet, any of these three must be put in over Eric Cantor.)
Finally, in a surprise move, the Conference should elect Jack Kingston as the new Conference Chairman. (Deborah Pryce was a puppet of DeLay and adds no value to the team, in addition to being an activist pro-choice supporter.)
If Republicans show the courage of their convictions to put a truly new team in place to show the American people they are serious about change, that they just aren't playing "more of the same" politics, we can have a more positive atmosphere here in Wisconsin. Then we can focus on the Obey DC-lobbyist funded campaign and travel, which is apparently ok if he does it (as well as the rest of his bad record for Wisconsin).
posted by ObeyOut2006 at 9:31 AM
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