On November 8, 2006, Nancy Pelosi, on the precipice of becoming the third most important public official in our government, uttered the now infamous words that will prove to define her tenure as Speaker of the House:
"The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history…"
When you read that today knowing what’s happened in the last three years, you might not know whether to laugh or feel appalled. You have your garden variety scandals at the hands of Eric Massa, Charlie Rangel & Maxine Waters, but what’s more, the complete disregard for the voters’ voices by the very people who promised to lead an honest and transparent Congress: Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Congressional Democrats’ actions have been devastating to our economy, healthcare, and most important, the civil discourse in the United States. You thought you couldn’t take anymore head-scratching, face-palming comments from the very people whose salaries you pay? You are sadly mistaken.
Yesterday was a banner day for the House of Representatives. Jason Mattera’s good friend Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), the poster-boy for corruption in Congress, engaged in that body’s form of hari-kari by taking the floor for a 37-minute diatribe in which he attacked both Republicans and Democrats for their assertions that he resign over the ethics charges leveled against him. Rangel, defiant to the end, told colleagues, “I am not going away.” Why would you, Charlie? You’re in the most ethical Congress in history! Only in the 111th Congress can you get away with what Charlie Rangel has done, shame yourself even more in front of the entire House body, and then get a spattering of applause when it’s all said and done!
Yet Rangel is comical at this point. Harry Reid really draws the most virulent ire from conservatives. Reid has become the quintessential Democrat, one who has time and time again used race-baiting tactics to garner votes and turn the light away from him and his party’s complete incompetency. What kind of “leader” says that President Obama was a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one’? What kind of “leader” can says that his own state has no illegal immigrants working construction when a non-partisan Pew Report says that over 12% of said construction workers ARE illegal? And yesterday, well, just watch:
Yes, you guessed it. It’s a kind of “leader” that the 111th Congress has continued to support, dismissing his actions as byproducts of just another day at the office.
It’s August 11, 2010, and we are a little under three months away from going to the polls and voting on whether or not to keep our current representatives for another two years or another six for our senators. The majority of Americans – you know, the ones that the lame-stream media labels as “tea-baggers” – will exercise their constitutional duty to vote most of the inept Democratic majority out of Congress, and for good reason.
