Posted on 11/20/2011 10:25:42 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Edited on 11/20/2011 10:44:59 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Who would dream that in this year of rising discontent against Wall Street and big government, it would take Sarah Palin to fix the blame where it truly should land.
In an essay published under her name last week, Palin said protesters are missing their mark. Instead of big banks and big government, Palin took aim at Congress, including both Republicans and Democrats.
"The corruption isn't confined to one political party or just a few bad apples. It's an endemic problem encompassing leadership on both sides of the aisle. It's an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests," she wrote in the essay published Friday in the usually conservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Palin didn't come up with her arguments entirely by herself, noting that she has found answers to questions many are asking in "Throw Them Out," a book by one of her foreign-policy advisers, Peter Schweitzer, which she writes reveals the "permanent political class in all its arrogant glory."
Palin/Schweitzer detail the money-making opportunities for this privileged class, and she concludes, "We need equality under the law. From now on, laws that apply to the private sector must apply to Congress, including whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws. Trading on nonpublic government information should be illegal both for those who pass on the information and those who trade on it ...
"No more sweetheart land deals with campaign contributors. No gifts of IPO shares. No trading of stocks related to committee assignments. No earmarks where the congressman receives a direct benefit. No accepting campaign contributions while Congress is in session. No lobbyists as family members, and no transitioning into a lobbying career after leaving office. No more revolving door, ever."
Ever?
Even if Palin didn't write the piece, or the ideas came from an aide, this is new territory for a major political figure in the Republican Party. Palin isn't running for president, this year, but none of the 2012 candidates are talking about the corruption that has made Congress beholden to big business, personal enrichment schemes and lobbyists.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich certainly isn't saying much. The former House speaker has inched upward in approval ratings in the light of Herman Cain's sexual harassment troubles and Rick Perry's inability to remember what he was talking about. But Gingrich should be careful in how he has been attacking Democrats like Barney Frank for being too close to Freddie Mac in its era of making dubious mortgage loans.
Gingrich made between $1.6 million and $1.8 million from the disgraced housing organization after he left government service for giving his insider advice.
Although Gingrich last week insisted he has not been a lobbyist, it turns out that health companies paid as much as $200,000 a year in dues to the Center for Health Transformation -- a health care think tank he created in 2003 to find ways to improve health care and make it cheaper. The Washington Post reported that the center collected at least $37 million in the last eight years as Gingrich pushed public policy positions favored by many of these companies.
Democrats, of course, are no better. On this page, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank notes how top House Democrats joined lobbyists in a recent fundraiser to benefit New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who only last year was censured by his colleagues for ethical and financial improprieties. All apparently has been forgiven when there's money to raise.
The stench goes all the way to the Obama administration. Take the Solyndra solar debacle, where a top Obama fundraiser, George Kaiser, also was a major Solyndra investor -- and was a frequent White House visitor as the now bankrupt company was getting the infamous $500 million loan that will never be repaid to taxpayers.
Any wonder Congress has a 9 percent public approval rating and that the early promise of the Obama administration has tarnished?
Milbank quotes Harvard law professor and liberal ethics specialist Lawrence Lessig, who told him, "Who would ever trust such a system? How can this government continue to behave like this?"
That's what Sarah Palin is asking.
And so should you.
I’m so lucky to have what is apparently one of very few honest representatives. After 20 years in state and federal politics, my congressman still lives a modest 6 figure lifestyle.
Still, I’m turning heavily in favor of term limits.
I really regret that Palin isn’t running. I don’t blame her, but... maybe when her kids are older.
“Who would dream that in this year of rising discontent against Wall Street and big government, it would take Sarah Palin to fix the blame where it truly should land.”
Yep, without Sarah, who would know this?
Honestly folks...
Evidently 100% of the people on this forum should be running for president.
I supported the lady and defended her tooth and nail from the rabid moonbats and rinos for three years, the lefties were right, she’s a quitter. Left us all twisting in the wind.
Did she personally promise you that she would run?
Nah man..It was her supporters that kept raising the furor over her running; not Sarah. I'm a diehard Palin supporter as well, so I feel your pain. But she didn't leave us twisting in the wind man.
Nice article on Sarah, and from a looney, left-wing, moonbat paper in Santa Cruz.
Me thinks that Sarah is as wiley as a fox. Now that she’s not a threat to the establishment (at least in the upcoming elections) they are not consumed with destroying her 24/7, which allows her an opportunity to get her message out to people that wouldn’t normally give her a fair hearing.
Perhaps there’s still a possibility we will see a “President Palin” in the future.
Just a thought.
Yeah, you’re right, From now on I won’t expect much of anyone, I’ll just take it for granted that the leftists are way smarter and listen to them.. hell I’ may even vote for barry if you moderates keep teaming up with the left alinsky style to destroy any and every conservative and nominate an establishment socialist liberal idiot.
Great map, thanks!
The point was that the left said she was a quitter.. All hat and no cattle.. millions of us defended her, end the end she quit.. No getting beyond that fact..
registration to be on the ballot for 2012 is after august...
all the registration talk is strictly for GOP primaries.
and the GOP is part of the problem, as they are infected with progressives
The media and establishment would never allow ANYONE IN THAT WOULD TRULY CLEAN IT ALL UP.
As I’ve noted before, Sarah Palin is just about the only politician I know who actually DID something about this. She shoveled out the Republican Corrupt Bastards Club in Alaska, as well as the Corrupt Dems. A number of them landed in jail. And she turned down earmarks and pork, even as a free gift from the feds to Alaska.
Sure, Newt ran as someone who would clean out congress. And he started out well, for a few months. But soon enough he caved to clinton, joined the pork gobblers and traitors, where he has remained ever since.
Anybody who thinks they can get rid of influence by controlling employment after serving in Congress is deluding themselves. It will only make the system more opaque than ever.
Even if Palin didn't write the piece, or the ideas came from an aide, this is new territory for a major political figure in the Republican Party. Palin isn't running for president, this year, but none of the 2012 candidates are talking about the corruption that has made Congress beholden to big business, personal enrichment schemes and lobbyists.
My goodness, while Palin has been a nonpartisan anti corruption crusader from her very first day of public service, the SCS can't even give her credit for her record of ideas. Interesting considering the left wing silence of the SCS for decades on these ideas.
That's what Sarah Palin is asking.
And so should you.
Even though Sarah is still dumb, right, SCS?
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