Eleven days to go before the 2008 election and the talk seems to still revolve about this being a Democratic year and where big gains are expected in both the House and the Senate. When you stop to think about it, does this make sense? Sure, President Bush has extremely low approval numbers and regardless of who wins the Presidential election on November 4th, it won’t be him. But what about Congress?
The 110th Congress, led by the Democrats, has the lowest approval rating in history, around 12%, and yet, the American people are expected to not only return them to Congress but increase their numbers. Wasn’t it bad enough? Do they need to reach zero in the approval department?
Just what, exactly have they accomplished? Sure, they raised the minimum wage, which will help about 4% of the population, at least those who don’t also happen to lose their jobs as a result because their employer can’t afford the increase, especially now that we are looking at a recession. But what else have they done?
Nancy Pelosi promised the most ethical Congress in history. How’s that working out, Nancy?
- Well let’s start with a twofer. Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York, who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that writes tax law, forgot that he had to pay taxes himself. It seems he has this villa in the Dominican Republic, that he rents out but that he hasn’t reported the income on his tax filings. Closer to home, it was learned that Congressman Rangel has not one, not two, not three, but four rent controlled apartments. Democrats have staunchly defended rent control as being necessary to provide people with affordable housing. Never mind that in the seventies it led to large swaths of burnt out buildings in New York and other cities because landlords couldn’t afford to maintain them when the rents wouldn’t keep up with the runaway inflation. But Congressman Rangel needs affordable housing because his Congressional salary is only $169,300 per year. Although he said he will give up one of the apartments that he uses as a campaign office, which may be illegal. Does Nancy Pelosi know this is going on? Because you don’t hear much about it.
- As our financial system is on the brink of collapse, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, chairmen respectively of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, are wondering how this all happened. Despite calls for increased regulation by the Bush administration, shortly after they took office, Barney and Chris said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were just fine. Dodd may have even gotten a sweetheart mortgage from Countrywide mortgage for being a “friend of Angelo” Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide, but that was before Countrywide collapsed and was acquired by Bank of America. But don’t worry, Henry Waxman of California is holding hearings on the whole financial mess. He will also address Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac once he finishes pillorying the executives of every firm on Wall Street, but he probably won’t get around to it until after the election. Busy, busy.
- Have you heard about Tim Mahoney? He won the seat formerly held by Mark Foley in Florida. If you recall, Mark Foley was sending inappropriate e-mails to some congressional pages, and rightfully lost his seat. Not to be outdone, Tim Mahoney steps in and ends up paying off, to the tune of $121,000 his mistress who he fired from a job on his congressional staff. He met her during the campaign and hired her at $36,000 per year. When she found out the married congressman was having affairs with other women, she broke it off and was then fired. Is Nancy on the case making sure that the pristine ethical standard that she set isn’t besmirched? Well, Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL), chair of the Democratic Caucus is working diligently to keep this buried, so that it doesn’t hurt Mahoney’s reelection chances. Nancy Pelosi, call your office.
Have you had enough, yet?
