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Sunday, January 08, 2006

Good Times



House Speaker Dennis Hastert says that he will move swiftly to reform ethics rules and clean up the House.

Color me convinced.

Now that Tom DeLay has informed Dennis Hastert that he is still calling the shots in the House and has determined what committee he will be assigned to, Republican corruption in Congress is a thing of the past.

WSJ:
Earmarks are at the heart of the scandals surrounding Mr. Abramoff and Duke Cunningham, the former GOP congressman who admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for earmarks. Military contractor Brian Wilkes not only lavished gifts on Mr. Cunningham but spent $1.1 million on lobbying others. The payoff: at least $95 million in government contracts. The Copley News Service reported that "Wilkes made no bones about where his money was coming from. His jet-black Hummer bore a license plate reading MIPR ME--a reference to Military Interdepartmental Purchase Requests," the means by which his firm got paid.
Well, that was the Dukester. But he's gone. And congress will now be safe from Tom DeLay and his sticky-fingered ethics as he takes over the seat on the Appropriations Committee that is now open having been recently vacated by DUKE CUNNINGHAM.

Meanwhile the Official White House Toxic DeLay Distancing Strategy seems to be fixing on the story that the Bugman was some sort of low-rent cracker that a wealthy Brahmin like George Bush would never hang out with.

Classy.

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