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Gingrich revolutionaries turn into arrogant elite
May 28, 2006
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Of all the many marvelous Ronald Reagan lines, this is my favorite: ''We are a nation that has a government -- not the other way around.''
He said it in his inaugural address in 1981, and, despite a Democrat-controlled Congress, he lived it. It sums up his legacy abroad: Across post-Communist Europe, from Lithuania to Bulgaria to Slovenia, governments that had nations have been replaced by nations that have governments.
But it's an important distinction for non-totalitarian states, too. For example, in May 2004 the then-Canadian government proudly announced that in the last month the country had "created" 56,100 new jobs. That's terrific news, isn't it? The old economic engine positively roaring away in top gear. But on closer inspection, of those 56,100 new jobs, 4,200 were self-employed, 8,900 were in private businesses, and the remaining 43,000 were on the public payroll. That's why they call it "creating jobs": 77 percent of new jobs were government jobs, paid for by the poor schlubs working away in the remaining 23 percent; the "good news" was merely an acceleration of the remorseless transfer from the dynamic sector of the economy to the non-dynamic. For too much of its recent history, Canada has been a government that has a nation. And across the pond the European Union is a government that has a continent.
Which current member of the Republican Party's creme de la creme could utter that Reagan line and mean it? Take the speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert. Last week, something very unusual happened: There was a story out of Washington that didn't reflect badly on the Republican Party's competence or self-discipline. It was about a Democrat! Fellow from Louisiana called William Jefferson. Corruption investigation. Don't worry, if you're too distracted by "American Idol," it's not hard to follow, you just need to know one little visual image: According to an FBI affidavit, this Democrat congressman was caught on video taking a hundred-grand bribe from a government informer and then storing it in his freezer. That's what the scandal's supposed to be: Democrat Icecapades of 2006. All the GOP had to do was keep out of the way and let Jefferson and his Dem defenders skate across the thin ice like Tonya Harding with her lumpy tights full of used twenties. It was a perfect story: No Republicans need be harmed in the making of this scandal.
So what does Hastert do? He and the House Republican leadership intervene in the case on behalf of the Democrat: They're strenuously objecting to the FBI having the appalling lese majeste to go to court, obtain a warrant and search Jefferson's office. In constitutional terms, they claim it violates the separation of powers. In political terms, they're climbing right into the Frigidaire with Jefferson's crisp chilled billfold. What does the Republican base's despair with Congress boil down to? That the Gingrich revolutionaries have turned into the pampered potentates of pre-1994 Washington, a remote insulated arrogant elite interested only in protecting the privileges of the permanent governing class. But how best to confirm it? Hmm. What about if we send the Republican speaker out to argue that congressmen are beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. law-enforcement agencies?
After all, the GOP's 1994 Contract with America stated pretty plainly that henceforth "all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress."
But that was a long time ago, wasn't it?
The constitutional point is clear. Congressional "immunity" is merely the Founders' retention of the English parliamentary privilege. That's to say, an elected representative cannot be tried for anything he says on the floor of the legislature. The reason for that is to create a climate in which parliamentary members are free to speak the truth. Yet oddly enough, as the gruesome "comprehensive immigration reform" farrago made plain, that's about the one thing they don't do: The Senate bill was bulldozed through by a phalanx of evasions and euphemisms and obfuscations and cheap sneers -- the cheapest being John McCain's complaint that those who object to illegal aliens being rewarded for their lawbreaking with backdated Social Security and other entitlements are forcing them to "ride in the back of the bus."
Oh, please. The illegals are getting to ride in the front of the bus. It's the foreign-born spouse of the U.S. citizen midway through his decadelong application for permanent residence who's going to be shunted to the back of the bus.
In other words, the Hastert-McCain Congress is now the complete inversion of what it's meant to be: They won't exercise their right to brave honest debate but they will claim the right for congressmen to keep evidence of crime and corruption in their offices without having to be bound by footling piffle like court-ordered search warrants.
By the way, even if one were in favor of the "comprehensive immigration reform" bill, it's a complete fantasy. Anyone who's had any experience of U.S. immigration knows that there is no way you can toss another 15 million people into the waiting room of a system that can barely process routine non-discretionary applications in under a decade. But then the ever greater disconnect between ineptly drafted legislation and reality seems to be of no interest to the United States Congress. City Journal's Nicole Gelinas had an interesting story the other day about the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory reforms, poorly drafted and hastily passed in the wake of the Enron collapse. The regulatory burden imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley has increased the cost of being a medium-sized public company by 223 percent since 2002. As a result, growing companies are choosing to list themselves not on the New York Stock Exchange but in London, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. Sarbanes-Oxley is a badly written law that forces companies to devote inordinate time and money in hopes of being in compliance with its vague requirements. It makes more sense to go elsewhere. In other words, the cost of access to U.S. equity markets has become too high.
But hey, that's not a problem for federal legislators who've moved on to frolic in other pastures. I said the other day that McCain and Specter and Sarbanes and Lott and the rest were presidents-for-life of the one-party state of Incumbistan. Between all the comprehensive immigration reform and corporate governance reform and campaign-finance reform and campaign-finance-reform reform and all the other changes, McCain and Co. sail on, eternally unchanging, decade after decade. There are no plans for Senate governance reform or Trent Lott finance reform. Incumbistan is a government that has a nation.
Oh the positive effects of term limits. I think the time has come.Incumbistan is a government that has a nation.
Mr. P said:Oh the positive effects of term limits. I think the time has come.
I agree the problem is not term limits, hell there are non. Well, except for the Pres. Ineresting that we limit the supposed most powerful position we have, but allow these other yahoos to run wild for 30 years. Who causes more damage in the end?Kathianne said:I don't think the problem is term limits, but a combination of the increase in interest groups coupled with a decline in populace engagement.
There also is the current two parties being clones of each other. While their members are different, the leaders aren't. :coffee3: A more engaged electorate could change that, but I doubt it will happen without the rise of a 3rd party, that will knock out at least one of the existing two, eventually.
Mr. P said:I agree the problem is not term limits, hell there are non. Well, except for the Pres. Ineresting that we limit the supposed most powerful position we have, but allow these other yahoos to run wild for 30 years. Who causes more damage in the end?
I agree much of the problem is interest groups coupled with a decline in populace engagement. A 3rd party might fix that, but I'd bet it wouldn't last.
Now it seems to me the only way to really shut that down Incumbistan (other than igniting the public) is term limits. Heck these people are pussy footing all around the illegal issue, why, for votes, re-election. Perhaps if re-election was taken out of the mix they'd do what is truly best for the country and not what is best for their position in DC. Just my opinion.
It may spike interest. I think it would.Kathianne said:Term limits would just cause further erosion of public interest. Truly, the infusion of energy would have to come from something like a third party and the collapse of one of the 'old parties'. IMO
Mr. P said:It may spike interest. I think it would.
Congressman Suspected In 8 Bribe Cases
By ALLAN LENGEL The Washington Post
Published: May 28, 2006
WASHINGTON - The FBI is focusing on at least eight different suspected bribery schemes as part of its corruption investigation of embattled Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., according to a federal affidavit and sources familiar with the inquiry.
A key part of the FBI inquiry has centered on Jefferson's dealings with a Louisville high-tech company, iGate Inc., that was marketing broadband technology for the Internet and cable television in Africa.
An affidavit used in last weekend's controversial search of Jefferson's Capitol Hill office, however, stated authorities are looking at "at least seven other" bribery schemes in which Jefferson "sought things of value in return for his performance of official acts."
Some schemes might be beyond the statute of limitations but could help show a pattern, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The records and materials seized during the FBI raid could shed more light on these areas, according to the affidavit.
Investigators are looking at several companies listed under the names of Jefferson, his wife or other relatives, according to court documents. Since January, two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.
Federal authorities have alleged in court documents that Jefferson took more than $500,000 in bribes in exchange for using his official position to promote iGate's technology in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.
