Webloggin » Do As I Say…Not As I Do

A Washington Post article this morning outlines how the new Democratic majority in the House plans on immediately reneging on their campaign pledge to bring bipartisan reform to Washington in the new term. The story details how incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-hypocrite) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-more of the same) plan on using House rules to prevent the Republicans ability to offer alternative measures in legislation, thus assuring swifter passage of their agenda.

While I believe that the Dems have every right to set the agenda as the majority in accordance with the results of the election, I am impressed at the speed with which they have broken their campaign promises. While this was predictable, I am amazed that they didn’t at very least try to fake it for a period before going full bore. If this is how they start, can we reasonably expect them to keep any other promise they have made to the people? The Republicans were turned out for breaking theirs, let’s see where this gets the Donks. It is definitely a thumb in the eye of the supposedly disaffected voters who brought them to power because they offered a “change in tone”. Let’s face it, this is the same tone with a leftward pitch. Let us not forget that many of the new house members were elected by running as conservative Democrats. Blatant disregard for the disaffected Republicans or moderates will not sit well with the electorate and may well backfire on them in 2008. Will they really move forward on ethics reform and allow Rep. William Jefferson (D - Freezer) a meaningful seat at the table? Republicans, while slimy themselves these past years at least step down when caught acting illegally or inappropriately. It is not ethics reform if you do not enforce it on all of the house membership and not just the opposition. A side note would ask, how did these shady “gray areas” become allowable in the first place? Was it ethical before and now it’s not? If you need to ask what the rules of ethics are, then you aren’t ethical in the first place. How about all of the House members just start acting in an ethical manner instead of wasting time delineating what is or is not appropriate? For heavens sake, conflict of interest should be painfully obvious. I wouldn’t look for any meaningful reform without an accompanying change of heart on what governance really means and that is highly unlikely.

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