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.
dead existentialist
Kleptomaniacs just can’t help themselves, John. It’s kinda like a glandular condition.
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.
NCSteve
A Pixar evil genius would be much more believable and human than Eric Cantor.
MattF
Are you insinuating that the House Majority Leader is a lying sack of shit?
Nellie in NZ
OT – found someone wrote a quick and effective ditty about Sheriff Joe and his quest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YemvzljXaHc
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.
Disco
There’s a good reason why Eric Cantor is in the top five fundraising House members.
He’s nucking futs.
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.
Jay in Oregon
Maybe we can convince Cantor to start wearing a cape?
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.
gluon1
@Spaghetti Lee: An old but apocryphal story. Lehrer retired because he didn’t want to be a professional musician. I believe he did once say, “I don’t want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.“
Spaghetti Lee
@gluon1:
Ah, darn it. Serves me right.
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.
Scott
Evil, I can agree with. Genius, not so much.
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.
El Cid
Yes, but it’s transparently a loophole, so it’s okay.
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.
dmsilev
Translation: “Oops, we got caught.”
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.
Bruce S
Eric Cantor has given all of the information that you people need to know.
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.
jwb
@Nellie in NZ: Stephanie Cutter retrospectively retires. “We don’t have the budget for nuance.”
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).
A Farmer
Hey, it may not be Burkean, but Sullivan uses Adam Smith against Romney.
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.
WaterGirl
@jwb: Was that really Stephanie Cutter in that video?
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.
Yutsano
Rusty pitchfork. Now.
JoyfulA
Cantor’s motivation may be that his wife is managing director of a TARP-receiving bank: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/10/16/124424/cantor-bank-foreclosure/
maya
Come on! You guys take all the fun out of being part of the govermoneyt.
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?
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.
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.
Bruce S
@WaterGirl:
Uh – no.