Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability Project, says he isn't concerned with who Linda's clients are, but what Tom Daschle may have done for those clients. At least for Linda Daschle's airline clients, the answer to that question is fairly clear: The airline bailout bill, shepherded through the Senate by Tom Daschle, sent nearly a billion dollars to American Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Northwest, which has received $404 million in cash grants from the government, actually posted $19 million profit in the third quarter.
Whose money is it to give away anyhow? Um, excuse me, that's my money. My friends and I would like it back.
So here's a case where a senator's wife gets a high-ranking government job, which in turn boosts her earning power as a lobbyist. She then represents clients who have business with and give money to her husband. Those clients pay her big bucks to help fight safety regulations and to win government money---money which helps pay the senator's mortgage. Yet so far, the press and congressional ethics hawks have largely given the Daschles a pass. So why isn't this a bigger story?
Mostly because no one in Congress has the slightest interest in raising it.
Thank you very much for the laying out the corruption and fraud so clearly. We are only in disagreement on the main reason why this isn't a bigger story. By my man-in-the-street understanding, the reason this isn't a bigger story is because the lamestream media ahs never wanted it to be. But I bet that's going to be your your next point or the one after next.
I swear on my honor I did not read ahead.
So who's left to scrutinize the relationship? The answer is the press. ...The main rule is that the effects of your actions, no matter how dubious---say, weakening airline safety---are never grounds for a scandal so long as you first, disclose your actions, and then, don't violate the ethics rules in the process. If Tom or Linda Daschle had secretly taken a free pair of Superbowl tickets from Northwest Airlines and then pushed the airline bailout plan, that would be a big story. But the fact that Tom Daschle takes thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Northwest and his wife's firm collects $200,000 a year to lobby for them is no problem at all.
Well, the author did bring up the press But in my opinion missed The Point almost entirely. That is, the lamestream media gratuitously turned a blind eye from the reality of the non-politically correct definition of... drum roll please... congressional ethics
For taxpaying Americans ethics is inseparable from honesty. For the lamestream media, politicians and a slew of other parasitical elite, for them "congressional ethics" is inseparable. The two word term must remain intact so that they can render honest ethics obsolete by a few sheets of paper with policies and procedures. If it's written law, it must be right.
Try pulling that one the next time you want your spouse or sweetheart to do you a special favor. But honey, it's right here in the policy and procedures -- it's the law. You can just forget about that special favor and you better grab a thick blanket because you'll be sleeping in the dog house for the next week.
I don't know even one person that has ever had to review written policy and procedure to safe-guard themselves from being unethical or dishonest in dealing with their friends and colleagues.
Excuse me, now that political correctness has invaded the work place, some people sometimes do find the need to review the political correct policies and procedures lest the run afoul. And heaven forbid that Jesse Jackson finds something amiss because the wrath of Jesse is following right behind. That's a whole another kind of hell that will pour in with the full force of government PC power guided by, you guessed it, government ethics.
Policies and procedures make for nice looking book shelves. Such as the U.S. Code that contains all federal statutes and consists of 56,117 single-spaced pages. Taking up nine feet of shelf space consisting of forty-seven volumes. The Code of Federal Regulations consists of more than 134,500 pages of regulatory law spanning twenty feet of shelf space. Judicial precedents for Federal law stretch across 490 feet of law-library shelving that consists of 2,756 volumes.
Congress has no rules prohibiting members' spouses from lobbying.
When you finish writing it just put over there on the shelf with the others.
Continued below...
Notoriously porous, congressional ethics rules were written on the not so unreasonable theory that it's impossible to forbid each and every potential conflict of interest, and that in the end, the voters are the ultimate arbiters of congressional behavior.
Rotten meat will not miraculously make for good stew. If it's rotten from the start, get rid of it. For sure, more policies and procedures will only make the Chinese water torture more excruciating.
Oh no, there I've gone and upset the Chinese community -- NOT!. They too are my fellow tax paying Americans that know ethics and honesty are inseparable.
If Tom Daschle poses a legitimate threat to Bush, his wife's lobbying will attract more attention from partisan Republicans and investigative reporters.
Certainly the FreeRepublic "rants" will become deafening. Considering how the lamestream media turned a blind eye to Bill Clinton's notoriously unethical and dishonest past, yet they rolled out the red carpet to the White House for him, it may be important to stress all the more what a traitor he was to Americans while catering to terrorists. Hold the media accountable for its complicity. Giving them a second chance to make amends in upcoming elections. Perhaps them retuning to inseparable ethics and honesty is the only way they'll be able to stay afloat.If
Linda Daschle lobbied one arm of Congress to weaken airline safety and give away billions of taxpayer dollars to corporate clients, the voters are likely to assume that her husband was in there, too. And they'll probably be right. After all, American voters may not understand the inner workings of Washington politics, but they do understand the inner workings of marriage.
That's a powerful summary/closing paragraph. This issue may very well go a long way to waking up millions of Americans to the180 degree difference between congressional ethics and their own honesty ethics. Perhaps they too will run for the showers.