defenseman
05-10-2007, 09:04 AM
Amazing, just amazing. With all the ethics issues over the last 6 yrs, they fall on their sword. I have lost hope for both sides of the fence..
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0705080778may09,1,7535327.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Congressmen fly in the face of ethics
Published May 9, 2007
Americans who fly (not congressmen, but us peasants) have to put up with a lot to collect our frequent flier miles.
The long lines, the aggravation and, worst of all, having to take your shoes off at the metal detector, where you unwittingly step onto the moist perspiration of sockless barbarians who've gone before. Then you get crammed into tiny seats, wedged between one guy who won't shut up and another guy who smells of Cinnabons.
But not members of the U.S. House of Representatives. They no longer have to step in the moist footprints of common voters because they've quietly come up with a new program: Congressional Friendship Miles.
Congressional Friendship Miles isn't a formal name. It just popped into my head, but it's catchy.
Back in January, the House smartly enacted a ban on members accepting air travel on private jets because of all the scandals.
They got tired of it, though, and last Wednesday, at 11:59 p.m. with nobody paying much attention because most of the country was asleep, they had a voice vote to enact a modification of their travel ban.
Now, if someone wants to offer the use of a private plane to a congressman, the congressman can accept it, with one caveat. The congressman must have an existing "personal friendship" with the person providing the air travel.
Lobbyists can have friends, too, can't they?
"It's a gigantic ethics loophole," said Melanie Sloan, of the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. "It's a joke. And no one is going to complain.
"Are House members going to hold hearings to determine if a lobbyist is a member's personal friend?" she said. "Will that member submit evidence, like friendship bracelets?"
Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Sloan overstated her case.
"These exceptions existed prior to the rule change in January and did not change last week," Daly said. "Any use of a friend's airplane would exceed $250 and so require written approval from the ethics committee. They must have a prior friendship, and there must not be any business being conducted between them. The overall rule change prohibiting corporate jets continues with full effect."
Perhaps.
But if it was so legit, why be sneaky about it, at the stroke of midnight with a voice vote?
"The whole thing is ridiculous," Sloan said. "All you've got to say is that the person providing the plane is your friend. There may be some pressure for members to establish friendships with these people so they can accept the seat on the private jet. So I imagine they'll be socializing more with lobbyists, like going to the movies."
I can see them now, congressmen and lobbyists going to the movies to establish a record of personal friendship.
But what movies, exactly? Guy Cry movies or "Ocean's 13"? Will they present their ticket stubs and popcorn receipts to House ethics committee?
While ethical Democrats sponsored the Congressional Friendship Miles program, ethical Republicans joined in too. There may be no honor among thieves, but pigs in the same trough respect each other's needs.
What bothers Sloan is that formal ethics complaints against House members can only be made by another member.
How often does that happen?
"Not often," she said.
That's probably why Rep. William "Freezerfull" Jefferson (D-La.) kept $90,000 in his freezer. His congressional colleagues didn't complain about the cash but about the FBI, saying investigators were too nosy.
Though he got caught with the 90K, he was re-elected and still has his job and can now fly back and forth to examine Hurricane Katrina issues on anybody's private jet, as long as they're personal friends.
Sloan is based in Washington, but she spent years in Chicago watching Chicago politicians. So naturally, she's wise in the ways of good, honest, ethical government.
As a law student at the University of Chicago, she told me, she applied through the university placement office and got a summer job.
That job was in the Department of Streets and Sanitation. Her task was to take "before and after" photographs of sidewalk and curb repairs.
"It was bizarre. I remember there were two families that ran everything in the department. And all their relatives were on the payroll," she said over the phone. "There were uncles and cousins and sons and daughters.
"It was like a family business. It was just amazing."
Things haven't changed much, in Chicago or Washington.
But if congressmen keep getting free plane rides from "personal friends" while the rest of us have to fly coach, things could get ugly. Congressional Friendship Miles could cost them their re-elections.
And they could end up flying back home, in coach, sad and squeezed, forced to wait in line and step moistly, while thinking about disinfecting their socks, just like the rest of us.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0705080778may09,1,7535327.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Congressmen fly in the face of ethics
Published May 9, 2007
Americans who fly (not congressmen, but us peasants) have to put up with a lot to collect our frequent flier miles.
The long lines, the aggravation and, worst of all, having to take your shoes off at the metal detector, where you unwittingly step onto the moist perspiration of sockless barbarians who've gone before. Then you get crammed into tiny seats, wedged between one guy who won't shut up and another guy who smells of Cinnabons.
But not members of the U.S. House of Representatives. They no longer have to step in the moist footprints of common voters because they've quietly come up with a new program: Congressional Friendship Miles.
Congressional Friendship Miles isn't a formal name. It just popped into my head, but it's catchy.
Back in January, the House smartly enacted a ban on members accepting air travel on private jets because of all the scandals.
They got tired of it, though, and last Wednesday, at 11:59 p.m. with nobody paying much attention because most of the country was asleep, they had a voice vote to enact a modification of their travel ban.
Now, if someone wants to offer the use of a private plane to a congressman, the congressman can accept it, with one caveat. The congressman must have an existing "personal friendship" with the person providing the air travel.
Lobbyists can have friends, too, can't they?
"It's a gigantic ethics loophole," said Melanie Sloan, of the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. "It's a joke. And no one is going to complain.
"Are House members going to hold hearings to determine if a lobbyist is a member's personal friend?" she said. "Will that member submit evidence, like friendship bracelets?"
Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Sloan overstated her case.
"These exceptions existed prior to the rule change in January and did not change last week," Daly said. "Any use of a friend's airplane would exceed $250 and so require written approval from the ethics committee. They must have a prior friendship, and there must not be any business being conducted between them. The overall rule change prohibiting corporate jets continues with full effect."
Perhaps.
But if it was so legit, why be sneaky about it, at the stroke of midnight with a voice vote?
"The whole thing is ridiculous," Sloan said. "All you've got to say is that the person providing the plane is your friend. There may be some pressure for members to establish friendships with these people so they can accept the seat on the private jet. So I imagine they'll be socializing more with lobbyists, like going to the movies."
I can see them now, congressmen and lobbyists going to the movies to establish a record of personal friendship.
But what movies, exactly? Guy Cry movies or "Ocean's 13"? Will they present their ticket stubs and popcorn receipts to House ethics committee?
While ethical Democrats sponsored the Congressional Friendship Miles program, ethical Republicans joined in too. There may be no honor among thieves, but pigs in the same trough respect each other's needs.
What bothers Sloan is that formal ethics complaints against House members can only be made by another member.
How often does that happen?
"Not often," she said.
That's probably why Rep. William "Freezerfull" Jefferson (D-La.) kept $90,000 in his freezer. His congressional colleagues didn't complain about the cash but about the FBI, saying investigators were too nosy.
Though he got caught with the 90K, he was re-elected and still has his job and can now fly back and forth to examine Hurricane Katrina issues on anybody's private jet, as long as they're personal friends.
Sloan is based in Washington, but she spent years in Chicago watching Chicago politicians. So naturally, she's wise in the ways of good, honest, ethical government.
As a law student at the University of Chicago, she told me, she applied through the university placement office and got a summer job.
That job was in the Department of Streets and Sanitation. Her task was to take "before and after" photographs of sidewalk and curb repairs.
"It was bizarre. I remember there were two families that ran everything in the department. And all their relatives were on the payroll," she said over the phone. "There were uncles and cousins and sons and daughters.
"It was like a family business. It was just amazing."
Things haven't changed much, in Chicago or Washington.
But if congressmen keep getting free plane rides from "personal friends" while the rest of us have to fly coach, things could get ugly. Congressional Friendship Miles could cost them their re-elections.
And they could end up flying back home, in coach, sad and squeezed, forced to wait in line and step moistly, while thinking about disinfecting their socks, just like the rest of us.