Political Ethics - Circling the Drain

With the Dems putting on demonstrations of how they are no better ethically than the Repubs, we keep being handed these wonderful bits of legislation that makes one question if a politician can be ethical at all. The RAT board was another feature of the stimulus package. Nice to see they rammed it past all the reviews.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

Isn't that pleasant. I had to check the link because it was something I thought obviously put out by the Onion. Unfortunately, it's by Byron York and all too real.

Burris and Blago from the Chicago corruption machine are bad enough. Tax dodgers Daschle and Geithner make one question the Ones choices, not to mention Bill Richardson.

How about Feinstein revealing the Predator Drone bases in Pakistan in a public forum. No doubt she lied about her source of that tidbit and made the US work with the Pakistani government extremely difficult. With political allies like this Obambi is in trouble.

Caught from Bruce.