Odds and Ends

Not much in the news today regarding Vermont's At-Large Congressperson. The House is in session today, with a few interesting propositions floating around, but this week marks the first in which there has not been an announcement (thus far at least) that Welchie will be landing another "plum" assignment on another committee. Of course, last week's big news was that ole' Welchie would be landing on a key oversight committee, which is responsible for probing into the Bush administration's policy choices over, oh, the last six years or so. Cleanin' up Washington, doing the people's work, etc. That's the story that the D's sold us on, and that's the story that they're trying to write. Today, however, it is starting to look like the ink well doth run dry, and once again, we must be forced to recognize that the promise is more powerful than the living up to it...or something like that.

This theory stems from a front page (above the fold) story in the old Post this morning. You can read it here. It covers another one of the main campaign promises that the D's, including son-of-the-green-mountains Welchie, painted most brightly across the newspapers and airwaves of our great nation last Summer. No, it's not Iraq (stupid!) but rather the second barrel of the D's shotgun, take the Hill plan: cleaning up Washington! We all heard so much about the "culture of corruption" (those catch-phrases are so cute) that the R's had engendered for far too long, right? This despite widespread evidence that power, famously, corrupts, and no lack of evidence from D's that cold hard cash is a desirable commodity indeed, for both D's and R's alike. Welchie was full of fire and brimstone on this issue. Peep his campaign site here. However, according to the post, the hands-in-taxpaers-pockets mentality that has so plagued our nation's seat of power will not be removed so easily.

As the Post article discusses, the reason for this is pretty simple: politicians just can't stop themselves from taking the opportunity to double dip for the price of their influence. Which means that the roundly praised ethics reform which was at least partially responsible for sweeping the D's into office is, like so many aging hippies, entirely without teeth. Surprised? Get used to it.

A recap of the first few days that the D's have been in control of both chambers brings us to some conclusions that must strike even the bluest of the blues with well, the blues. 1) Iraq: this debate has been lost by the D's. As mentioned on this very site, the framework has been shifted, without a chance of getting it back on track, we suggest. Think about it: have you heard anything on troop withdrawal? If so, where in City Hall Park were you standing, and what sized bongo was the person who told you about it playing? 2) Ethics reform: Congressional D's are simply not willing to implement a ban on their own spouses lobbying activities? WW predicts that this is just the start of a greater watering down of any actual ethics reform. Why? Because that's just the way that Washington works. There are a few scandals, the ethics cold war between the parties escalates into full-blown nuclear strikes, reforms are promised and then everything dies down for another 20 years. This is because, wake-up, both D's and R's are guilty of these types of violations. It's only when the stakes are really high that the ethics committee warms up.

Which brings us, once again, back to Welchie. We recently read about his co-sponsorship of the "man on the moon" project or whatever the heck it was. When will we read about his much-hyped ethics reform package? When will he sign on with Kucinich to end funding for the war? When will we read anything about any of this in the pages of any of our local papers? As an old song once said, the answer is blowing in the wind.

And a cold wind it is.