Mario Piperni dot Com

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“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”  – Mark Twain

Timothy Egan laments the state of Congress.

If ever there was a place in need of more comedy, and less comity, it’s the U.S. Senate.

Cobwebbed by senseless rituals, speeches which no one listens to  and rules that make it all but impossible to act on the will of the people, the Senate cries for more ridicule, decorum breaches and old-fashioned wit.

Yes, they should be lauded for pulling off two of the most significant reforms of modern times, in health care and financial regulation.  But those rare legislative triumphs almost didn’t happen, and probably will not be repeated — by either party on any major issue — for a generation. The default mode in the Senate, less by design than by institutional arteriosclerosis, is insulated decay.

And should Republicans win the House and a few more seats in the Senate, you can pretty much close down shop for the next two years.

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The President fires back…

With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.

Good luck. Two words that don’t work in the same sentence – “bipartisan” and “Congress”.

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You’ve no doubt been dying to know who the top 25 wealthiest members of Congress might be. Just for you.

1	Darrell Issa (R-Calif)	$251,025,020
2	Jane Harman (D-Calif)	$244,796,667
3	Herb Kohl (D-Wis)	$214,570,011
4	Mark Warner (D-Va)	$209,700,598
5	John Kerry (D-Mass)	$208,801,275
6	Jared Polis (D-Colo)	$158,173,566
7	Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla)	$142,432,692
8	Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)	$94,306,010
9	Frank R Lautenberg (D-NJ)	$74,744,094
10	Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif)	$72,380,637
11	Michael McCaul (R-Texas)	$69,619,248
12	Alan Grayson (D-Fla)	$54,451,020
13	James E Risch (R-Idaho)	$53,325,524
14	Bob Corker (R-Tenn)	$52,345,517
15	Cynthia Marie Lummis (R-Wyo)	$48,288,514
16	Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass)	$44,917,518
17	Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)	$40,898,090
18	Carolyn B Maloney (D-NY)	$36,751,045
19	Gary Miller (R-Calif)	$36,719,525
20	Nita M Lowey (D-NY)	$33,835,578
21	Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif)	$31,378,542
22	Denny Rehberg (R-Mont)	$31,372,505
23	Yvette D Clarke (D-NY)	$30,000,001
24	Olympia J Snowe (R-Maine)	$28,542,526
25	Kenny Marchant (R-Texas)	$27,363,295

For what it’s worth, 8 of the top 10 are tree-hugging, commie, love-a-government-handout liberals.  Also, 44% of Congress are millionaires.

HatTip: Foolocracy

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Bush, Cheney and Barney - We can dream, can't we?

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has proposed setting up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration.

Leahy said, “I think the Senate and the Congress as a whole has an oversight responsibility that has to be carried out here anyway. Now it is much easier with the cooperation of the administration. A lot of things with the subpoenas I issued the past few years, we got a lot of information but a lot of it was held back.”

For his part, President Obama has shown a reluctance to give his blessing to the proposal.  While not offering an opinion he did say his preference would be to look forward and not backwards.

I don’t think the Leahy proposal will go anywhere but a case can be made that Congress does have Constitutional authority to investigate.  For many, in both the US and the world, an investigation into the Bush administration’s crimes would be a form of closure.

One can only imagine the uproar Republicans would raise if Congress did go ahead with an investigation.  As we all know, Reps are more concerned with BJs in the oval office than actual war crimes.