Hold a politician to account? Take him off the committee

while the investigation- such as it is- continues? Sounds good to me, but then I'm not one of the jackasses in Congress.
More than a month into the new session, the reorganized committee -- with new leadership -- will begin again to look at Rangel's ethical issues, which we recently reported on here. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in November that the report would be completed by the close of the 110th Congress, which was January 3.

The investigation remains incomplete, and Rangel still chairs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, much to the chagrin of House Republicans. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) introduced a privileged resolution that would have forced Rangel to step down from Ways and Means until the ethics committee completed its report. The House voted last night to table it, however -- thereby killing it.
According to the story, EVERY Democrat either voted to table it or(the chickenshits) voted 'present'.

Here's the funny part:
Carter, the Republican Conference Secretary, said yesterday that he was not out on a witch hunt for corrupt politicians, but rather he was attempting to save the good name of Congress.

"It worries me that the public perceives a body made up of hard-working men and women on both sides of the aisle in such a negative light," Carter said. "Mr. Rangel has many issues hanging out there and still is in charge of writing the tax laws in this country as chair of the House committee."

Got news for you, Mr. Carter: Congress doesn't HAVE a 'good name'. Congress is now known as a bunch of flat-out crooks and socialists(at worst) and incompetents(at best) with a sprinkling of honest people; kind of like having high-grade sprinkles on a rotten cupcake.

Speaking of rotten, I got this from GOPUSA this morning:
I want you to know that I do intend to seek re-election. The magnitude of the financial crisis that many American families are facing makes it clear to me that I want to continue to serve the people of Arizona and our country in the Senate.

Today, I'm asking you to join my campaign by making a generous contribution so I may continue my service to our great nation.
The message includes this:
As always, I anticipate a tough re-election challenge. The national Democrats will no doubt target me for defeat in an attempt to expand their majority in the U.S. Senate. But with your help, we will counter those efforts and put forth an aggressive campaign to win. That's why I'm asking you to join my campaign by giving $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 or whatever you can afford right away.
Mr. McCain, I'd rather take a pile of money and use it for kindling than send it to you. The only reason I could vote for you in the past election was because I thought you'd be somewhat less damaging to the country, and it really pissed me off that between the Stupid Party bigshots and the media I wound up with you as the alternate to The Obama. And the way your people crapped all over Sarah Palin after your loss made it worse, you bastard. And THEN, just to make it even better, you signaled your intention to 'work with' Obama on immigration, which pretty much pointed to the amnesty you tried to shove down our throats already.

So go away, McCain: stop screwing with our lives. I decided a long time ago that 9/11 or no, Arizone should have gone through with the recall on you. Go away.

Speaking of the reputation of Congress, Maxine Waters is a member: 'nuff said.
Her questions to the bankers are so bizarre that they don't know what to do. Ken Lewis looks like a deer in the headlights as Waters asks her about offshore loss mitigation efforts. He can't even figure out what she's talking about, and neither can I. She also asks the bankers, few of whom are in the credit card business, how many of them have cut credit limits to people on the basis of where they shop. It's like watching your crazy aunt challenge your boyfriend to prove that fairies aren't real.
She's also the one who slipped in a hearing and told an oil company guy she'd like to see the oil industry socialized. 'Good name of Congress' my ass.

It appears that Pelosi and Reid staff met all through the night in secret with Democratic conferees’ staff to cobble together the “stimulus” conference report. Republican conferees were frozen out.

The objective appears to be to produce a final conference report on the trillion-dollar spending bill by this afternoon so that floor action can take place in both chambers by Thursday.

They intend to ram this trillion-dollar spending bill through with as little debate and scrutiny as possible.
'Good name of Congress', bullshit.

Assuming you could get through the Praetorian Guard that's protecting the House & Senate from the peasants, I've come to the conclusion that damn near the only thing that would really, truly get the attention of a good many of these politicians would be a bunch of people from back home showing up with a bucket of tar and a bag of feathers. Or, in some cases, a rope. And some of them would STILL stand there telling you that you don't know what's good for you, you should go home and stop causing problems, etc.