Republicans – unethical. And so is anyone who votes for ’em.
Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation – washingtonpost.com
Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists’ influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.
The bill could be brought back up later this year. Indeed, Democrats will try one last time today to break the impasse. But its unexpected collapse last night infuriated Democrats and the government watchdog groups that had been pushing it since the lobbying scandals that rocked the last Congress. Proponents charged that Republicans had used the spending-control measure as a ruse to thwart ethics rules they dared not defeat in a straight vote.
“It’s as obvious as the sun coming up somewhere in this world that they tried to kill this bill,” a furious Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said last night in an interview. “And all 21 Republican senators up for reelection are going to have to explain how they brought down the most significant reform ever to come before this Congress. They brought this baby down.”
One Response
Here’s a response I got. Feel free to write Mr. Henke and let him know what YOU think of Republican “ethics”.
Jon_Henke@mcconnell.senate.gov
In re: your post on the ethics reform bill, I wanted to give you our side on this. I know you and I probably won’t agree on policy, but leaving that aside: I think it’s unfair to suggest that Republicans oppose the ethics reform bill.
It was Senator Byrd, not the Republicans, who derailed the ethics reform vote. Here’s Harry Reid last night, discussing the agreement between the Republican and Democratic leadership that would allow the ethics reform bill and the Gregg Amendment to move forward to a vote.
“Mr. President, to bring everyone up to date as to where we are, I made a good-faith offer to the minority that we will put the line-item veto off to another day. Senator Byrd was not agreeable to that. I talked to Senator Byrd on more than one occasion this evening, the last time for a significant amount of time, and he simply believes this line-item veto is a matter of great constitutional import, that for us to agree at this time to debate this would be wrong and that he simply will not do that.” — (Sen. Harry Reid, Congressional Record, 1/17/07, p. S647) http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=150662268120+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
Republicans didn’t derail the ethics reform bill. They’re enthusiastic about voting for it. Republicans just want earmark reform, as well. (and Democrats have already accepted an earmark reform amendment in the ethics bill, so it’s not really unrelated)
—-
Jon Henke
New Media Advisor
Senate Republican Communications Office