I have to give credit where credit is due. This weekend dengre continued the long, drawn out story of one of the worst periods of corruption in the history of Congress. And, in his typical style, he gives full credit to Josh Marshall and the hard workers at TPM/TPM Muckraker for their following the story of Alberto Gonzales and the political firing of a group of prosecutors.
And, it typical fashion, I will continue to point out that Jack Abramoff was not the sole source of sleaze in Washington and that the Republicans are not the only party that has sleazy members.
While it may seem that the Republicans institutionalized corruption, one only has to look at the case of William Jefferson to understand the everyone in Washington has the temptation to transgress and the arrogance to think that they can get away with it. Jefferson, almost did, getting re-elected to Congress after the initial revelations of his frozen assets.
Such corruption demands that we be ever vigilant.
Those who know me may have read my PomboWatch blog (now archived - but ready to bring back if he ever decides to leave his plush lobbyist job for another gamble on political power.)
One of the many connections that I documented was that between the Coal Industry and the members of House Committee on Resources: Pombo, Barbara Cubin (WY), J. D. Hayworth (AZ) and Rick Renzi (AZ). All were in a position to help the coal industry maintain subsidies and to ensure that coal was a major part of the federal Energy Plan.
However, Pombo and Haywork that gone, Renzi is under heavy scrutiny for his real estate dealings and Cubin won re-election by less that 1,000 votes. Of course they all claimed that they were doing what was right for the American Economy and protecting the ability of the public to have lower cost electricity from coal fired plants.
They, and especially Richard Pombo, were also very much against any change in CAFE standards for automobile mileage as that might impact the earnings for the petroleum industry, who was also a major campaign contributor.
Who is carrying the heavy load now that Pombo and Hayworth are gone and Cubin has had her angel wings clipped? Democrat Rick Boucher (VA-09), Chair of the House SubCommittee on Energy and Air Quality, that's who. Of course, you have to outside of that state to find someone to tell it like it is. The Editors of the Columbian (Clark County, WA) made the comparison to Pombo and find Boucher of the same ilk.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., the chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and air quality, seems intent on emasculating the auto emissions-reduction laws passed in recent years by the three West Coast states and several Northeast states. The Washington state law, for example, would require that by 2009 cars and light trucks sold here emit 18 to 25 percent less carbon dioxide than current models.
It is interesting to go back and look at the Boucher Campaign Contributions. The top contributors are the Electric Utilities. Mining Indurtries are only 4th on the list. However, the connection to Boucher's bill comes not from industry, but from labor. Major contributions came from the United Auto Workers (UAW).
Unions, such as the UAW are one of the main stays of Democratic Power. They have been so for a long time. Now, in a misguided attempt to save jobs, they support actions that might affect the plans of their employers. We have Congressmen like Boucher, who appear to put the short term political gain of backing a single industry ahead of the long term health of the American public, ahead even of taking effective action against global warming.
The most recent UAW Community Action Program statement onEnergy and the Environment called for non-action on the "discriminatory" CAFE standards.
Admittedly the UAW is between a rock and a hard place. They want to protect jobs. They believe that they can do so by maintaining the status quo because they do not have a good sense of anything that they are for.
So, what is the result? A Congressman who will support his supporters by taking action that flies in the face of ecological wisdom.
While not on the level of the corruption of the Abramoff scandal, this is very close to what Pombo did for years and demonstrated that there is nothing new in Washington other than a change in who gets the money.
We must continue dengre's fight against all who would put use their office in such a manner. Unless he begins to change his behvior, I would hope that someone in Boucher's district would do for him what I helped to for Pombo.