Foxes In The Henhouse...

I listened to the radio all day today, my usual menu of Talk Radio and popular music, and the interspersed News breaks.

I did not hear Jack Abramoff's name once.

It's already starting to disappear, just like I said it would. We will hear sporadic News updates occasionally, on significant days such as Abramoff's sentencing hearing, and we will eventually be given a list of the most prominent Republicans who were tainted by their association with Abramoff and his cronies, but this scandal is being allowed to fade.

A couple of people that I talked to today mentioned him, and he is still a topic of discussion on the blogs, but by this time next week, this affair will have gone the way of Able Danger.

The scandal will be mentioned once in a while by people trying to illustrate a point about Republican Corruption, or some such, but the Major Media coverage is about over.

One of the reasons that this is happening is that it will taint far too many politicians from both sides of the aisle if it is pursued agressively. Sure, it might further undermine the reputation of Tom Delay, and a few other Republican Lawmakers, but I don't believe that the Democrats and their lapdog reporters and Media outlets are really willing to trade Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Harry Reid for whichever Republicans they might take down. They (the Republicans included...) would much rather that the whole thing just go away.

This is a much bigger mouthfull than anyone anticipated.

But that is not the main reason that this will be relegated to page 17A. (And soon...)

The REAL reason is that if this is pursued to it's logical conclusion, it will cause the American People to demand a complete overhaul of the Lobbying System.

If that were to happen, then no longer would a Congressional Seat that pays $162,100 per year be worth spending $50,000,000 to win. (Doesn't that seem a little fishy to you? It does to me, and always has...)

What this might do is cause our Representatives to re-inforce the open-handed slap at our (your and my) Freedom of Political Speech rights known as the McCain-Feingold Encumbent Protection Act, which, in a way, created Lobbyists like Abramoff in the first place, and Partisan Attack Organizations like Moveon.org. Abramoff was not the only Lobbyist in Washington, and it would be naive to think that he is the only crooked one. Rest assured that if it were to be investigated closely enough, connections could be found from shady lobbyists to every single member of the House and Senate.

Any action taken in response to this scandal by the politicians who are tainted by it will only make matters worse for the American People. We lose more of our Freedom, more of our voice, and more of our influence over our own elected representatives each and every time they begin to monkey with our ability to support the candidate of our choice, and each and every time that we do not hold our elected representatives to account when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Here is another interesting bit of fallout stemming partially from this scandal.

Guess who is beginning to gain political traction lately, and has taken the lead on this issue...

Newt Gingrich.

On his website, he has outlined a plan to fix this problem, and I have heard something from him every day on different Talk Shows for the past week, and he is clearly positioning himself for a 2008 Presidential run. (And I can't tell you that I would not be willing to vote for him. I would rather have him as President than Hillary or McCain...)

I don't know, but I would be willing to bet that there aren't many Democrats who wanted HIM back...

I don't know how far he will get, but it will be interesting to watch.

Back to the scandal. I don't want it to go away. I want every single politician who has done anything wrong to be exposed, tried, and punished, regardless of which party they are from, and let the chips fall where they may.

I would rather have an honest Democrat in the Senate than a crooked Republican. I would rather know that the representatives that I send to Washington with my vote actually represent me, and not the highest bidder.