Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

People are weird.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Stand up, dammit!

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

We still have time to mess this up!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Rules are For the Little People

Rules are For the Little People

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One of the most difficult things about following modern politics is remaining cynical enough:

CNN is reporting that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) office wrote a loophole into the House version of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK) exempting Congress members’ spouses and children from having to report stock market transactions over $1,000 in a timely manner.

The Senate version of the bill requires these transactions be reported within 45 days by both its members and their families. But a memo from the Office of Government Ethics, which oversees all federal executive branch employees, used the House version, telling them spouses and children were not subject to the rule.

Neither of the bill’s Senate co-sponsors, Scott Brown (R-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), knew about the discrepancy.

“I mean, bottom line, we’re supposed to have that level of transparency and have us be treated like every other member of the United States,” Brown told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Bottom line, if we can’t do it, then — sorry, if they can’t do it — then we shouldn’t be able to do it as well.”

Writing loopholes into transparency bills. It’s like these guys have modeled their political careers after one of Pixar’s evil geniuses.

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    dead existentialist

    Kleptomaniacs just can’t help themselves, John. It’s kinda like a glandular condition.

  2. 2.

    Spaghetti Lee

    IIRC, Tom Lehrer retired from music after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize, claiming satire had been made irrelevant. If something similar were to happen to lefty bloggers, I’d understand completely.

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    Making watchdog laws look ineffective helps crank up cynicism about the government’s ability to do anything, which is exactly what Republicans want. They get to cheat and further the storyline that government sucks by sucking at governing.

  7. 7.

    Disco

    There’s a good reason why Eric Cantor is in the top five fundraising House members.

    He’s nucking futs.

  8. 8.

    Maude

    Cheaters.
    This isn’t year to be pulling this stuff. People are hurting and the economy is bad.
    Trust a Republican to want to get around a law that removes money from his pocket by having the family hold it.

  10. 10.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Maude: Disorganized crime snatches your purse.
    Organized crime suborns your accountant and torches your building for the insurance
    Really organized crime has the legislature remove the statutes on fraud and larceny removed from the books.

  13. 13.

    The Moar You Know

    Being that Cantor was the guy who the bill was written for in the first place, all I can say is “nice set of brass balls on that guy”.

    He does not give a shit about anything but Eric Cantor. People call him stupid. I don’t think he’s stupid at all; I think he’s figured out how to game the system for his own maximum benefit, and the rest of us can die in a fire as far as he cares.

  15. 15.

    BGinCHI

    A seat in Congress is a seat at a casino game rigged in your favor.

    I wish Democrats in Congress would use the word “corruption” more often.

  17. 17.

    Triassic Sands

    The English language is alive and growing. Unfortunately, too often change is driven by the ignorant.

    However, I think we’ve reached a point where the word “cynicism” is simply inadequate. In fact, the entire English language no longer seems adequate to describe the Republicans and their practices.

    Simple words like corrupt, deceptive, dishonest, and despicable seem wholly inadequate, and I hate attaching a string of adverbs to achieve intensity.

    We need an entirely new vocabulary.

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    “It was not the intention of the House to differ with the Senate-passed bill with respect to application to spouses and dependent children. We did not believe at the time that we had differed from what the Senate had done,” spokesman Doug Heye said. “Since new information has been brought to our attention with respect to this discrepancy, we are reviewing our options regarding transaction reports in the House of Representatives.”

    Translation: “Oops, we got caught.”

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Cantor’s fucking head would look infinitely better on a pike than it does on his shoulders.

    He’s absolutely brazen.

    No mercy for the likes of Cantor.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @MattF:

    I don’t think he’s insinuating.

    I think he’s outright saying it.

    Because it is the truth, and is an ironclad defense against any defamation charge.

  23. 23.

    Ash Can

    @dmsilev: You saw that too!

    John, you really did leave out the best part. When Cantor’s office was called for comment, the spokes-stooge basically said, “We didn’t realize we did that, and we’ll look into fixing it, but we don’t have any details on how we’ll do that.” What a crock of shit. Cantor’s a dishonest schmuck, and his staff members aren’t smart enough to lie convincingly (which is probably a good thing).

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    It would be poetic justice if that little shit Cantor lost his seat. Seems to be about a 50-50 chance, so he’ll be looking for SuperPAC money.

  27. 27.

    SRW1

    Fer Christ sake, if the Majority Leader can’t write some loopholes into whichever law pleases him, what’s all this lawmaker profession for?

    You didn’t think they write laws for the prose of it, did ya?

    I agree on the challenge of remaining cynical enough, though.

  31. 31.

    Warren Terra

    I am genuinely bewildered by this. It’s been a long time since civic class, but I thought the House and the Senate had to pass exactly the same bill for it to become law. How can their bills differ?

  32. 32.

    ruemara

    @jwb: Send that to Econwatcher’s wife. Since she’s perturbed by the lack of nice in Obama, but I’m guessing the shit slung Obama’s way is ok because it’s those guys.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @Warren Terra:

    I don’t think they have been reconciled yet, and the drones putting out the Office of Government Ethics memo went with the House version instead of the Senate one.

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