Today's Spit Take

From today's Republican press conference on Lobbying Reform:

QUESTION: Mr. Speaker, if I could ask you a question, the Abramoff scandal is what has forced you into this position. A year ago, the things that you're proposing would not have been politically possible for you to talk about.

Why is the Congress reacting and why didn't it act initially if all these are good ideas?

HASTERT: Well, you know, a year ago most people around Congress couldn't tell you who Jack Abramoff was and didn't know who his associates were or what connections there are.

As this thing unrolls, people understand that we need to learn from what happened in the past and try to rectify that if we can.

How confusing it must have been for them, a year ago, trying to figure out where all that extra money was coming from, or who was employing their former staffers, or who that fellow was who kept flying them places and then calling to ask for favors. "Hey, anybody, does the name Jack Abramoff mean anything to anyone?" was no doubt commonly heard in most offices around Congress.

Claude Rains gave a more believable performance. One almost expected someone to walk up to Hastert with a sheaf of cash and say "Your winnings, sir."

I believe that what he really meant was, a year ago, no one in the public had tumbled to the widespread corruption of which Jack Abramoff was only a part, but now they have been caught in the act. They need to learn how that got to be a matter of public concern, and rectify that if they can, so the party can continue.

The problem is not that we need lobbying reform, it's that we need Congressman reform. It wasn't that there weren't ethical rules, or standards of behavior to be followed, it was that the Republican leadership wasn't at all interested in following them, because ignoring them made it easier to gain, keep, and wallow in the perks of power. If Congressmen weren't willing to participate in the corruption, Jack Abramoff wouldn't have been so successful.

I'll believe the Republicans are interested in fixing this problem when they start shunning their pals before they appear in an indictment.