No Escape from K Street

With the need to choose a new majority leader due to the indictment of the last guy on charges related to campaign finance shenanigans, with the stench of lobbyist and bribe machine Jack Abramoff hovering over any number of GOP congressional offices like rotting traif (Yiddish alert!), and with ethical, ah, shortcomings sure to be a major campaign theme during the upcoming midterms, you would think that the republicans in the house would be eager to choose someone as ethically unchallenged as possible. And I'm sure they wanted to; these people aren't polically inept.

Which makes the fact that they couldn't find that guy all the more damning--the sad fact is there isn't a squeaky clean guy. John Boehner (R-OH)? Nope. Sorry. In addition to accepting a bunch of money, Boehner was also involved in the whole Marianas Islands sweat shop aspect of Abramoff's viral money slurping enterprise, and his former chief of staff is now a top aide for the Ur political hack of our generation, Karl Rove.

The truth is, this is the best they could do. Any GOP rep whose been around long enough to be a viable candidate for a leadership post is tainted by this pall of corruption. Really, and not to put too fine a point on it, when you think for a minute about how Congress works, it makes you want to puke. Incumbents are protected by rampant gerrymandering and endless tainted cash, leading to a mockery of the idea of representative democracy and a mass of individual fiefdoms awash in money.

I'm in a great mood.