Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Congress is a lemon and I want my money back

This whole Mark Foley scandal is making me sick. I'm glad he's resigned, I'm glad he was investigated after the allegations and all that.

What is making me sick is the politicization of it all. One of my college roommates had been a page in DC for a year or two. When he was a page in the early 90s (before Foley was elected to Congress) he and the other male pages were warned about Congressman Barney Frank's "friendliness." To my knowledge Frank has never been investigated, he's actually been re-elected several times and is still a US Congressman. There was another congressman a few years back (whose name eludes me) who had actually been caught having sex with an underage female page. He was censured, re-elected a few times, but inevitably retired and is now paid a pension... paid for by tax dollars. Both Frank and this other congressman are/were Democrats.

Honestly, at this point I think the Justice Department just needs to do a blanket investigation of both houses of Congress to root out ALL of the would be sexual predators in BOTH parties. It seems each party is quite skilled in finger-pointing as long as the finger is pointed anywhere but at themselves.

I think the whole "who knew what when?" argument is a sad attempt by the Democrats to a) oust Hastert and b) deflect attention away from the fact that the Democrats have at least one, if not more, sexual predators in their own party who are serving in Congress.

Remember the Abramoff scandal of a few months ago? All the Democrats were raking the Republicans over the coals... then we stopped hearing about that scandal altogether. You know why? It was discovered that many Democrats were also guilty of taking money from Abramoff and in dollar amounts much higher than the Republicans. The Republicans who received money from Abramoff gave that money to charity for the most part. Democratic Senator Harry Reid who was one of the more outspoken Democrats railing against the Republicans for their corruption had actually received over $41,000 from Abramoff... At the time of the scandal he opted to keep the money, not give it to charity like so many of the Republicans he had been so vocal about condemning.


I guess my point is that this issue only serves to illuminate the corruption that exists within BOTH parties within both houses of Congress. And if you think about it, what makes this so scary... The legislative branch NOT the executive branch is the most powerful branch of government. The executive branch's power is just more concentrated than the legislative branch's power. People talk about Bush and go after him because he's ONE target thus he's an easier target, one person to put a face of corruption to rather than 535 (or however many Seantors+Representatives there are today). As a taxpayer looking at the corruption of Congress... it's a giant lemon and I want my money back!

Or as The Donald with his cobra-like hand gesture would say... "You're fired." Say what you will about Bush, but I think too much of the blame is being placed on him and his cabinet and not near enough is being placed on Congress.

Vote None of the Above in 2006!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should submit this as an editorial to a newspaper or something. You're a great writer with a good grasp on what's going on plus you aren't afraid to share your opinion (which, for the record, I agree with!)

St. Dickeybird said...

I like the irony that Foley voted anti-gay so often, and then got busted with a guy!

I think that was Foley that I was reading about on CNN...

Susan as Herself said...

I am just so sick of constantly being disappointed by government. Like you said, it's truly nauseating. Makes me want to move to the moon and start my own country.

St. Dickeybird said...

Susan - The Moonies?

Jeff said...

Nothing is more ironic than Foley running a campaign on being a huge advocate of the battle against child predators.

Also when regarding scandals in congress it will always be the party who has the most power being involved in the most scandals like the Republicans have been in. That fourty year rule of Congress by the Democrats was plagued by corruption of the left wing. The weaker party needs to keep it clean in order to win elections. With power brings corruption. I don't think the Democrats are corruption free in Congress right now but at this point less corrupt than the Republicans. If things play out the way they appear to play out in November than I think we will see the shift in corruption.

Jay Noel said...

"None of the above!" that's from Brewster's Millions!!!!!!

Green Eyes said...

Foley thing makes me physically sick.

Hey! Have a great weekend!

Godwhacker said...

Hi Perplexio,
I agree that this is disgusting. What is worst is how our constitution is being used as toilet paper in the congressional bathrooms.

Habeas Corpus is our right to be either charged or released. Yet the same time this scandal broke, congress past a law which essentially abolished this long-time cherished rights enshrined in the constitution.