The CORRUPT REPUBLICAN House of Representatives

-- Matthew Yglesias, subbing @ TPM SAYS
1)RE: HOUSE/REPRESENTATIVES LEADERSHIP:

(The) root-source of the problem is... the tension between rightwing dogma and reality. The tax-cut jihad the Club for the Growth has done so much to foster is a serviceable basis for electioneering, but as a basis for governance it has some serious flaws. In particular, it implies very large cuts in federal spending. But actually implementing cuts on the necessary level would be politically untenable. The result is a governing majority that lacks the capacity to govern and instead invests its energy in spinning all sorts of mumbo-jumbo to cover its tracks and a kind of inertia where the majority's perpetuation in power becomes the primary goal...

2) RE: SPEAKER, DENNIS HASTERT:

...as the House tries to "clean house," how come Hastert's head isn't on the table? Admittedly, he's not implicated in criminal activity the way Tom DeLay is, but in theory he's in charge of the House Republican leadership operation. (He hasn't done very well) these past several years in rooting out corruption not just inside his own caucus but inside his own leadership team. The tendency has been for him to get a free pass on all the antics that go down on the Hill because he's universally regarded as an empty suit. But if he's so inconsequential that he doesn't deserve a share of the blame for the dirty deals that have gone down under his purview, then it's hard to see why he deserves to sit in the Speaker's chair. If he doesn't matter because, as is widely assumed, he's just a DeLay puppet, then how can you justify ditching the Hammer without also dumping (Hastert as well)?

I concur. Next, Herb.