Shaking up congressional leadership appears to have done nothing to clean up the corruption. During the election, Dennis Hastert was accused of failing to address Foley's problems. Hastert claimed he took care of the problem at the level he was informed about it. That may hold as an excuse for leaders in congress. However, any leader of a sizable for-profit business would have been expected to squash a problem like that in short order and never allow it to escalate into anything. Instead, he missed his chance to show real leadership.
Is the new party in power ready to show how it's done?
So far, things are not particularly promising. Starting with incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, we are now told by the same Senate Ethics Committee he once led that he did nothing wrong when he accepted free ringside seats from the Nevada Athletic Commission. And although William 'Cold Cash' Jefferson has lost his committee chairmanship, thanks to Pelosi, one has to wonder what felonies fall under the category of actionable offenses?
Calling for an independent ethics committee may be well intentioned, But it will not likely overcome the D.C. attitude of leadership being more about protecting and preserving the brotherhood than about inspiring ethical behavior and competence in government.
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1 comment:
Good post.
This is a bipartisan issue/problem and I think most of us could name both Republicans and Democrats we would like to see looking for work after the next election.
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