New Rules Still Allow Congress Many Perks
Policies on Lobbying Are Selectively Strict
By John Solomon
Washington Post
On the Monday that was supposed to start the new Congress's first five-day workweek, Minority Leader John A. Boehner helped persuade his Democratic colleagues to give House members the day off.
The Ohio Republican had his reasons. He was going to see Ohio State compete in the national championship football game in Arizona. Boehner had tickets for the stadium's nosebleed section. Then, Boehner's office said, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. offered him a bird's-eye seat in one of the company's skyboxes.
In the skybox, Boehner mingled with lobbyists for the media giant, whose vast interests in Congress include broadcast-decency legislation and possible restrictions on its hugely popular MySpace Web site.
The perk for Boehner and the lobbying access for News Corp. are entirely permissible under the new ethics rules Congress imposed on itself this month -- provided Boehner personally reimburses the cost of the skybox ticket, which Boehner's office said he plans to do once the company sends him the bill. The lawmaker can use campaign funds, instead of personal money, to pay his airfare.
"He was there to support his home-state school," Boehner spokesman Brian Kennedy explained.
Voters in the last election demanded a change in Washington's ethics climate. The new Democratic congressional leadership responded with sweeping new prohibitions on gifts and travel from lobbyists, tough new limits on once-cheap corporate jet flights for lawmakers, and new requirements that lawmakers disclose the pet projects they earmark.
(Continued here.)
By John Solomon
Washington Post
On the Monday that was supposed to start the new Congress's first five-day workweek, Minority Leader John A. Boehner helped persuade his Democratic colleagues to give House members the day off.
The Ohio Republican had his reasons. He was going to see Ohio State compete in the national championship football game in Arizona. Boehner had tickets for the stadium's nosebleed section. Then, Boehner's office said, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. offered him a bird's-eye seat in one of the company's skyboxes.
In the skybox, Boehner mingled with lobbyists for the media giant, whose vast interests in Congress include broadcast-decency legislation and possible restrictions on its hugely popular MySpace Web site.
The perk for Boehner and the lobbying access for News Corp. are entirely permissible under the new ethics rules Congress imposed on itself this month -- provided Boehner personally reimburses the cost of the skybox ticket, which Boehner's office said he plans to do once the company sends him the bill. The lawmaker can use campaign funds, instead of personal money, to pay his airfare.
"He was there to support his home-state school," Boehner spokesman Brian Kennedy explained.
Voters in the last election demanded a change in Washington's ethics climate. The new Democratic congressional leadership responded with sweeping new prohibitions on gifts and travel from lobbyists, tough new limits on once-cheap corporate jet flights for lawmakers, and new requirements that lawmakers disclose the pet projects they earmark.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Glad that the WP is reporting this side of the story.
For days Jay Leno, using his monologue, had a field day with slamming the Dems over taking a day off … when John Edwards was being interviewed by Leno, he had no response or explanation -- most likely, because he had no knowledge of Boehner's "request". As usual, a Drudge rumor gets treated as fact. As I wrote in my blog “A word of advice to Speaker Pelosi : Next time little Johnny wants to go to a football game, use your Mother-of-five voice and tell him that he is excused, but that the other 433 members must join her to work on the country’s problems. Also, watch your back, those Republicans may seek comity with you in person, but then let their lackeys attack.”
A good news aspect of the Senate ethics bill is that convicted legislators will lose their pensions …. I don’t know it that is retroactive for Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney.
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