Ethics Bill Puts Mitch McConnell on the Spot
Will he side with Harry Reid or Jim DeMint on earmark reform?
By Bluey Posted in Archived — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
UPDATE: I just got word from a trusted source that Harry Reid's office is spreading lies about the ethics bill. Here's a Myth vs. Fact document about earmark reform.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) can't seem to catch a break. His poll numbers are down at home and his normally reliable deputy in the Senate is taking shots at him. Those two factors are shaping up to be important factors surrounding this week's vote on a watered-down ethics reform bill.
As I reported earlier this week, two conservative senators, Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.), are livid that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) gutted the earmark reform language in the bill. Coburn's office released a detailed chart on Tuesday showing exactly what had been changed by Reid behind closed doors. And today DeMint's office released a Congressional Research Service report that confirms the bill will not ensure complete earmark disclosure.
The mini-revolt stirred up by Coburn and DeMint hasn't gone unnoticed among Republican leaders. In fact, the man whose quote adorns the Porkbusters website, Minority Whip Trent Lott, has sided them. But Lott also took it a step further and criticized McConnell in today's edition of National Journal's CongressDailyAM.
Read the quote and more on the jump ...
Asked whether Republicans could muster the votes to block cloture on the lobby bill, Lott seemed to suggest Minority Leader McConnell would not take a strong stance leading Republican opposition to the bill.
"After the exhibition I saw on immigration, I don't suspect there's going to be a lot of strength and dynamic leadership here [to oppose the lobbying reform legislation], but we'll see," he said, referring to GOP criticisms of McConnell's lack of visibility during the final days of the unsuccessful immigration debate in June.
Republican aides privately criticized McConnell for putting his re-election concerns before the leadership needs of his party; the proposed immigration reform was deeply unpopular in McConnell's home state of Kentucky, where he has said his Senate seat is targeted by Democrats.
If McConnell decides to back Reid over Corburn and DeMint, he'll doom any effort to restore the original earmark reform language. What's so sad is that McConnell would score huge points with the conservative base if he challenged Reid, especially in light of the earmark scandal engulfing Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska). The earmark language that was stripped from the bill was approved on a 98-0 vote in January.
It's hard to understand why McConnell won't come out against this bill. Perhaps DeMint has tested him one too many times? Yesterday, McConnell was quoted by the Associated Press blaming DeMint: "[W]e made it difficult on ourselves because one of our members prevented us from going to conference." That member was DeMint. His reasoning made sense. Reid refused to guarantee that the earmark reform language would remain intact. Besides, Republicans would have been rolled over in the Democrat-led conference committee, giving them no leverage once the bill reached the floor.
A chance to reform the earmarking process won't come along again anytime soon. It would be unfortunate if Republicans let this bill slide through in its current form.
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Ethics Bill Puts Mitch McConnell on the Spot 11 Comments (0 topical, 11 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Republicans are already in the minority. Why not put the pressure on Harry Reid to get something meaningful done on earmark reform?
Show the weaknesses of the current legislation and propose tougher standards. However, I don't think the majority of the Republican's in the House or Senate really want reform or an end to the earmark scams and bundles of lobbyist cash.
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"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
want the Congress reigned in, they want the "Culture of Corruption" killed. You can't deal with corruption unless you deal with earmark transparency. Any Senator who supports gutting earmark transparency is, de facto, supporting the corrupt culture of DC.
Harry Reid is an inherently corrupt man. To his very core. He's passed on to his children. And he's using the earmark and lobby processes to feather his and their nest.
No Senator who stands with Reid on this issue deserves his seat. DeMint and Coburn are heroes for standing up to Reid. McConnell and every Republican Senator should be on board with this and it should be an issue that the RNCS flogs every D who supports it in '08 and beyond.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Earmark reform could make government function again. Republicans have the perfect opportunity, now. We need to make it happen.
Support good Senators; Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn with messages of support, and notify those not on board for earmark reform that they need to support it NOW.
The Dems were going to drain the swamp, and all they are doing is stirring up the mud to hide what they are really doing. Yeah, a lot of the swamp was Republican, but that matters little now. Taking a firm position on earmarks now at least shows that the Dems only wanted a political advantage, not a moral advantage. And DeMint is on target. This is a problem with Congress, both Republicans and Democrats.
Sad to say that the collective memory of the nation is short, but this will probably be better for the Republicans. The recent tar sticking to Dems will probably be more effective than the "ancient" history of Republican earmarks. At least we can say that it was Republicans driving the earmark reform before the 2006 election, and we intended it to apply to both Republicans and Democrats. The Dems can't really say that today.
A pox on both their houses, sort of. Just a bigger pox on the Dem hypocrisy of today.
McConnell? Hard to say. Is he a latter day Bill Frist? Maybe we need a strong Minority Leader to take the fight to the Dems, and to discipline the party. McConnell is apparently unwilling to do that. Trent Lott should have have been exiled to Siberia for his comments. Specter should be banished with him.
They could make it work if they come clean and are open about past mistakes. For example something along these lines:
"Prior to 2006 we were not fiscally responsible and we got sucked into the pork culture of Washington. Because of this the voters kicked us out of the majority and they were right to do so. If you would give us another chance we will cut down on pork and be open about who is requesting it."
....why he doesn't publicly call the Dems on the carpet here and take a tough against this earmark bill is beyond me. Here is a golden opportunity to create a MAJOR campaign issue for 2008 and he is waffling. I'm not sure that Mitch is all that vulnerable, but supporting this bill will give whoever challenges him a major issue to whack him over and over again - and it just might work to get him defeated.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
Senator Ted Stevens getting raided by the FBI yesterday, possibly over earmarks to his son, is not going to help matters.
They want to pass a watered-dwon earmark bill so that
1) they can claim to have cleaned up the system
2) they can continue to abuse the earmark process
3) they can claim any Reps who voted against it must be corrupt porkers
In a similar vein, we have this goodie about how there is a bipartisan Iraq bill that would pass, except that the Dem leadership will block it since it would let GOP Reps separate themselves from Bush. I don't know if it's a good bill or a bad bill, but Pelosi's handling of it speaks volumes. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, one of the sponsors, said, "I would hate to be in a situation where the Democratic Party was trying to explain that it wants to score political points rather than end the war."
I'm not sure whaling on earmark reform is the best attack route. All the Democrats need to do to blunt the attack is point out the GOP did not undertake earmark reform in the 12 years the GOP had Congress, so what business do we have opposing any reform now?