VICTIMIZING THE VICTIM

This morning on Meet the Press, the discussion was about the Representatives and Senators who, like Tom Daschle, take from lobbyists, though not directly, or are not easily visible. Imagine my shock when Barney Frank said it was up to the voters to change this. I'm a voter and I never knew it was happening, even though I read news diligently. I have no way of going about finding out about which politicians are crooks unless they are as visible in their lies as Bush and Cheney had been (and Cheney is still ). Naturally, Frank gave no instructions as to how the voters might find out what their colleagues presumably don't know...or do they, and collude in the process?

Transparency seems to be the operative word here. In 1999 there was an excellent presentation to define transparency. The first entry is "citizen's access to information". Now this was before the Bush administration in which no other governmental agency had access to information, not the news media, not the Legislative branch, or anyone else who might have been helpful. Where does the voter stand a chance with a group that, in secrecy, can vote itself raises and perks only to then announce it as a fait accomplis to the 'voters'? Where does the voter stand a chance with a body of politician's who found it more important, for almost two years, to attempt to impeach Clinton rather than worry about the citizen's welfare, for which they were elected? Does Representative Frank think that, with all the pressing priorities, the Legislative Branch will make taking away all those perks top of the priority list?

After all, what is the job of the Ethics Committee? Does anyone know outside of the committee itself? The US House of Representatives has a Committee on Rules. Apparently the Ethics Committee is a sub-committee part of the Senate's Committee on Rules. Judging from their Annual Report, they are not overloaded with work. There seem to be few whistle blowers within the body. Does anyone really check to see if rules are followed? If so, who would that be? Why does the truth only come out when someone is looking to get vetted and examined more closely.

My suggestion would be that every candidate who is running for office go through a similarly thorough examination under whatever political microscope is used to find out if the Nanny, probably hired by the staff and not the politician, was an illegal immigrant. To expect such knowledge is as likely as to expect Bush 41 and Bush 43 to know the price of broccoli in the local supermarket.