Some day, once the current GOP dominance collapses under the weight of their corruption, we'll have Dems playing the same dirty game. Republicans rally around their sleaziest bad-government practicioners, as we know the elephant flies above the Stars and Stripes to the typical Bush/DeLay apologist.
The moral imperative behind a "clean government" crusade is self-evident. But there's also a practical reason to oppose corruption even amongst Democrats -- it's a sure-fire way to lose elections. Rampant Democratic corruption cost us Congress in 1994, and we've yet to recover. And continued Democratic corruption has made House Dems wary of charging ahead with the "corruption" theme to hard, lest some of the current members get snared in the web.
Good. Let those who sit in Congress enriching themselves go down. They are supposed to be doing the people's business, not their own. Unlike the GOP apologists, I consider corruption a non-partisan issue. I'd like to see them all thrown out with the Capitol trash.
If anyone wonders why I'm such a Schweitzer fan, here's another reason:
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has asked Democrat Bob Rowe, the former chairman of state Public Service Commission, not to work on the governor's upcoming energy conference because Rowe is associated with a lobbying firm that represents several energy companies.
The governor's office had previously hired Rowe to help organize the conference. Rowe has been released from that job.
"It's simply policy," Schweitzer said. "I believe passionately that you can only serve one master. When we have chosen people to work for us, we have chosen people who will commit themselves to working for all the people of Montana, not a special interest." [...]
Schweitzer said he found out late last week that Rowe was listed as a Gallatin Group lawyer. He said he felt removing Rowe from his position with the symposium was in keeping with his policy of not involving lobbyists to be involved in state government projects.
That's clean government in action.
(Oh, and Kerry is trying to capture a bit of the Schweitzer magic. Man, if two politicians were ever polar opposites...)
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