Congress Starts a New Session Today

Reagan famously said, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."  Today the government is starting a news session for the 111th time and is intent on helping YOU during this session.  You are permitted to be terrified.

Today is largely a ceremonial day with the swearing in ceremonies taking place.  (This means Virginia has a new junior senator today.)  However there are two stories of note on the senate side of congress.  

Roland Burris, the man Governor Blagojevich nominated to take Barack Obama's senate seat has been rejected by the senate, and while he is working with senate leaders to resolve the issue, he may take it to court.

Also the Minnesota certified that Al Franken won the Minnesota Senate recount yesterday.  Norm Coleman is challenging this in court as this was a very fishy recount process.  The Senate Republican leadership have vowed to keep Al Franken from taking his seat until the the legal battle is concluded in Minnesota.  Minnesota law will not issue a certificate of election until the litigation process has ended, however some Democrat senators including Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid are pushing for Franken to be seated immediately.

The irony in all of this is that Reid is refusing to seat Burris because he doesn't have an election certificate but talking of seating Franken without one.  

Reid Spokesman Says There Will "Likely Be An Attempt To Seat" Franken. 

"Jim Manley, the spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday that there 'likely will be an attempt to seat [Franken] this week.' A senior Democratic aide confirmed that Senate Democrats hoped to swear Franken in Tuesday, along with the rest of the freshman senators." (Emily Cadei and Kathleen Hunter, "Senate Democrats May Try To Seat Franken," CQPolitics.com, January 5, 2009)

FLASHBACK: Reid Spokesman Says Roland Burris Could Not Be Seated Unless He Has An Election Certificate. 

"'Until he gets a certificate he is not a senator,' said Jim Manley, spokesman for Reid, D-Nev." (Catharine Richert, "Challenges Could Keep Two Senate Seats Open For Weeks,"Congressional Quarterly, January 1, 2009)

Now that is what I would call fair and open government.

In other senate news we still don't have a replacement for Hillary Clinton's senate seat.

Blagojevich Update

The past couple days were filled with a lot of fun developments in the Blagojevich corruption case in Illinois.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that Rahm Emmanuel spoke with Blagojevich about the Senate seat, and there are probably tapes of some of those discussions. This report came out after Emmanuel had refused to speak to the media about this case for an extended period of time. From Barack Obama's point of view the incomign administration shoudl come totally clean, and honestly explain any connection they might have with this scandal. This shadow has been hanging over the president elect, and they shoudl do everything necessary to get rid of it.

Yesterday Governor Blagojevich had a brief press conference in which he declared his innocence, refused to step down, and fight this thing "till his last breath". He also urged his constituents to give him the presumption of innocence and thanked everyone who had supported him during this time.



The one thing that was missing from Governor Blagojevich's defense was something called evidence. While he insisted he was innocent he did nothing to dispute Patrick Fitzgerald's claim of having taped conversations in which Blagojevich was trying to sell the senate seat. Unless Blagojevich can dispute the evidence, he is simply stalling the inevitable and delaying the selection of a senator to replace Barack Obama. If Governor Blagojevich is going to fight this to the bitter end he should atleast allow the state of Illinois to have a special election to choose the next senator. This move will enable the state of Illinois, and the country to begin to move on from this scandal.

...and Speaking of Corrupt Democrats, but should we really be?

According to the Washington Post,

House Minority Leader John Boehner released a campaign memo earlier this week in which he makes clear that his party will push the idea of a culture of corruption within the Democratic party over the next few years.

Luckily for Boehner he seems to have a lot of fodder.

The GOP can herald the way that Representative Cao ended the carreer of William Jefferson who was under a bribery investigation.

The GOP should beable to make plenty of hay out of this new scandal with Governor Blagojevich.

They also have the case of Charlie Rangel who is under investigation for using his position on the Ways and Means Committee to create and defend tax loopholes which he has used for personal advantage. He is also under investigation for other tax code related issues.

While it is true that the Democrats are corrupt, should the Republicans really push the idea that the the Democrats are corrupt this election cycle? The GOP seemed to have a difficult time keeping its own members from doing really bad things over the past few years. If the House Republicans are going to call the Democrats corrupt durign teh next election cycle, they better make sure they are not corrupt, and have a xero tolerance level for anyone who is even slightly tainted with corruption. Accusing the opposition of corruption is an inherently difficult strategy as you must make sure you are not corrupt yourself.

If the Republicans can pull off the whole corruption angle, cool, however I would be much more excited and inspired to campaign for them if they would advance a series of creative conservative ideas. When the GOP violates core conservative beliefs (suports the bailout, supports unlimited spending, supports amnesty, etc...) and refuses to fight for conservative principles, I am just as uninspired to vote for them as when they are corrupt. Hopefully the Republicans will grow a spine and act on it.

No Hypocrisy Doesn't Exist

Remember the beginning of 2006 during the Jack Abramoff Scandal? Pictures of President Bush and Jack Abramoff surfaced, and President Bush and the Whitehouse were under fire for the "close" connections they had with Jack Abramoff. These pictures were "proof" that President Bush was corrupt.



Well today as Matt Drudge has been reporting on the arrest of Governor Blagojevich, he has put this picture at the top of his website.



It is a picture of Barack Obama and Governor Blagojevich smiling, shaking hands, and talking. I wonder if Obama will come under as much criticism as a result of this picture with Governor Blagojevich as Preisdent Bush came under as a result of the picture that surfaced of him and Jack Abramoff.

Change You Can Believe In

For a candidate who ran on "change" Obama sure has done an impressive job carrying out his campaign promises.

Early on his presidential campaign Barack Obama promised to take federal financing of his campaign. As an early sign of how well he would keep his campaign promises, he went back on that promise.

One of the reasons Obama was able to defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary was the whole issue of the war. He was able to paint Clinton as a hawk, and advertise himself as someone who had opposed the war from the very beginning. Obama believed in this so much that he nominated Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. These two picks that have made some liberals unhappy as theleft perceives these two people to be military hawks.

No the questions is how involved was Obama in the scandal that lead to Governor Blagojevich's arrest this morning? For someone who ran as someone who would remove cronyism, partisanism, and corruption from politics, any involvement in this scandal will undermine his message. As the investigation unfolds it more people will inevitably be implicated and it wil be interesting how close this investigation gets to the new president.

Apparently Tony Rezko, a close friend of Obama's, is under investigation as part of this scandal.

The Next Right reports that Obama and Governor Blagojevich both seem to have improper links to the Children Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Obama also seems to be following in the path of outgoing President Bush. He and his campaign adviser David Axelrod have now said opposite things on the communication between Obama and Governor Blagojevich on who will take Obama's senate seat.

Obama said today after the story broke, "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."

However on November 23rd David Axelrod said, "I know he's (Obama) talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

This apparent deception by Obama concerning his involvement in the selection of his replacement only makes people even more suspicious.

ABC News Senior Whitehoue Coresponent, Jake Tapper, details suspicious activity by the Obama Whitehouse, and Obama's closeness to Governor Blagojevich which might lead to potential damaging things for Obama down the road.

For a man who criticized the corruption of the Republicans and the Bush Administration, this kind of closeness to Governor Blagojevich's scandal does not seem to be like much of a change.

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So where is this "Change You can Believe in?"

I see it in Bob McDonnelle in 2009. "Promises Made Promises Kept"

I also see it in 2010 when we elect more principled conservatives to the house and senate.