The Culture Of Hypocrisy

Let's face it, the Federal Government has become a joke. These are neither the best nor brightest who are "giving back" to this country through public service. They are a mixture of power-hungry marxists, greedy opportunists and spoiled, trust fund babies who couldn't hold a real job if it was handed to them.

From IBD:
Posted 4/6/2006

Scandal: Democrats plan to campaign on the GOP's "culture of corruption" even after the retirement of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. But before throwing stones, they should board up their own glass house.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi didn't come to praise Caesar when on Tuesday she released a statement on the resignation of Rep. Tom DeLay, saying:
"Mr. DeLay's departure from Congress is one piece of the changes needed to end the Republican culture of corruption. This Republican corruption continues to cost the American people at the pharmacy, at the gas pump and in their home energy bills."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has echoed these talking points, saying earlier this year:
"The American people have paid the price for the Republican culture of corruption over the last five years, and the president's budget proposes more of the same."

Let's leave aside for the moment the lawsuits from the Democrats' very own special interest, the trial lawyers, that have raised the cost of health care and drugs. Or the fact that Democrats have led the parade in blocking development of domestic oil and natural gas in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf and on federal lands in the West. Or that Democrats have their share of the "earmarks" slipped into budget bills that bloat the deficit.
Let's consider the ethics of those casting these rather large stones. Conspicuously absent from media coverage of DeLay's alleged transgressions is Pelosi's very real election law violations.

For example, House and Senate leaders are allowed one so-called leadership PAC in addition to their own campaign committee, the purpose of which is to make contributions to other candidates. Pelosi had two.
In early 2004, the Federal Election Commission fined both PACs associated with Pelosi, the second making $5,000 contributions to 36 campaigns that had already received the maximum $5,000 allowed by law from the first.

And when it comes to cashing in on family connections, DeLay's relatives can't hold a candle to Reid's family.
In June, 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that in the prior four years firms employing Reid's sons or sons-in-law earned more than $2 million in lobbying fees from special interests that were represented by the kids and helped by the senator in Washington. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D.-Ill, head of the Democrats' effort to retake the House and make Pelosi speaker, said "the power of the special interests, the control the powerful lobbyists continue to hold, tells the American people everything they need to know about Tom DeLay's departure — that DeLay may be gone, but nothing has changed."

Emanuel has seen corruption and malfeasance firsthand, having served as a senior adviser in the Clinton administration, famous for the White House coffees, renting out the Lincoln bedroom, and Johnny Chung showing up at the White House with a $50,000 check he handed to Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, among other questionable things.

The 2000 campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who would be our president, recently conceded filing false FEC reports, understating in-kind contributions by nearly $722,000, including those of three-time convicted felon Peter Paul.

As we have noted, Reid got $70,000 from sources linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom Democrats tried to hang around DeLay's neck like a political albatross. John Kerry got $100,000, and Senate campaign committee chief Chuck Schumer got nearly $30,000. Schumer in 2003 quietly paid a $130,000 fine plus $120,000 in refunds to 77 donors for violations in his 1998 campaign.

An analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics shows that since 1990, Democrats have taken in nearly 10% more in campaign contributions from lobbyists. In 2005, the GOP received 55% of lobbyist contributions, but in the 1990s during the Clinton administration, Democrats got 70%.

The "culture of corruption," apparently, is bipartisan.