Friday, January 13, 2006
Cleaning up the House
An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers
We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.
We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.
But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.
As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.
If Congress is looking for a code of conduct in matters of junkets, boondoggles, expensive dinners and under-the-table gifts, it need look no farther than the codes adopted by the pharmaceutical and medical device industry groups over the last few years. They are very applicable. Why? If you sell a medical product, you cannot any longer give a doctor anything bigger than a donut or a pen. You can't take doctors on junkets, or buy them expensive bottles of wine, or take them to the Super Bowl. That's because when a doctor buys something from a manufacturer he or she is spending other people's money. Regulators and prosecutors understandably fear that people are most corruptible when they control somebody else's purse. Well, the same is true of legislators. Any dinner that costs more than $100, wine included, is too damned expensive. No junkets, no spouses (if your spouse is along, you probably aren't doing business), and no sporting events. If doctors and pharmaceutical companies can live under these restrictions, so can Congressmen.
And, if the price is that we need to pay Congressmen a lot more money, so be it. Raise the salaries of our top elected and appointed officials to levels that bear a closer resemblence to private sector compensation (may I suggest $1,000,000 for the President, $750,000 for the Chief Justice of the United States and the Speaker of the House, $500,000 for top executive branch officials and Congressmen, Senators, and Associate Justices).
It's gotta happen, and now's the time. Clean it up, already.
If you are a blogger and want to participate, sign up here.
3 Comments:
By 
Gordon Smith, at
Sat Jan 14, 08:13:00 AM:
Great Ideas, Hawk.
Do they let lefties on the list? I promise to apply the principles to all our public servants, not just the red ones...
I would like to see the right add some demands for resignations. Nowhere in American jurisprudence are conservatives so cautious as with their own elected officials. It's almost like you've forgiven them before their penitence. It's almost Christlike...
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Jan 14, 09:09:00 AM:
Well, Screwy, I don't know that they would refuse to "let" a lefty blogger on the list, but the title of the petition does describe the signers as "center right," so signing it might amount to something of a concession on your part. Of course, if you and your colleagues have seen the light, I would happily move your location on my blogroll... :)
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Jan 16, 06:37:00 AM:
I agree with your substantive reform, and having accomplished that would support the pay differential you propose. Right now, it strikes me as a pointless, lame job. If it were the Senate majority leader, that would justify a pay difference.
