The Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2006. What a joke.

There's transparency all right. It's pretty clear that this was simply an effort to pay lip service to the issue, without making any real changes or providing any disincentives for violating the rules. And accountability?? The proposed bill makes the pay-to-play culture of Congress "out of order". It doesn't provide any actual teeth when it comes to holding Senators and lobbyists accountable for their indiscretions. I want to remind people that there was a proposed bill for true legislative reform, which had some real teeth to it. It was proposed by Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada (S.2180), and I talked about it in my post on February 7th of this year.

The new bill, S.2349, sponsored by Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, passed the Senate yesterday in a 90 to 8 vote, This bill is really nothing more than a whitewash over the serious problem of corruption within the Legislative AND Executive branches of our government. The fact is, the elected "Representatives" of the American people aren't representing the people of America. They are representing the lobbyists and special interests who are more than happy to provide perks, and in many cases, line the pockets of our legislators. And the proof of that is in yesterday's vote on this bill. Out of 100 "Representatives" of the American people, only 8 were willing to show the courage of their convictions. Thank you Senators Coburn, DeMint, Feingold, Graham, Inhofe, Kerry, McCain, and Obama. You demonstrated yesterday that perhaps, just perhaps, there is still a small amount of integrity within the Senate chamber.

Of course I may be giving these guys too much credit. Take a look at the Senators I just listed. How many of them are likely candidates for the White House in 2008? At least half I'd say. Coincidence? I wonder. How many of these guys are going to go on the record saying, "Well I voted against that bill, and that's why you can trust me to not be bought by the special interests." Trust is something that should be earned. Show us, don't tell us.

I'm so looking forward to more earth-shattering legislation from this Congress of ours. Maybe the "Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2006", where they triple the national debt, or perhaps the "Election Integrity Act of 2006", where Corporate America and the media decide who gets elected, or even the "Citizen's Rights Act of 2006", where they abolish the Bill of Rights.