House Republicans Vote to Strip Independence from Ethics Office
First of all, it looks like it&#x27;s not a done deal quite yet:<p>&gt;The full House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on the rules, which would last for two years, until the next congressional elections.<p>That said, I&#x27;m absolutely baffled about how anyone can support the Republican Party these days. I&#x27;m not talking about tax policy or spending or surveillance or any of the big issues -- I disagree with their positions in many cases, but I can <i>understand</i> them.<p>What I can&#x27;t understand is the bizarre, nightmarish attacks on what seems to be... well, democracy. Regardless of how you feel about abortion or foreign policy or the social safety net, there&#x27;s a party that:<p>* Advocated the invalidation of big chunks of the Voting Rights Act, then passed voter suppression efforts (North Carolina, among several others) so brazenly targeted at minorities that even red-state courts stepped in to stop them.<p>* Pushed gerrymandering to an almost comical conclusion in states like Wisconsin, where legislators aren&#x27;t even <i>pretending</i> to have a reason for doing it other than to disenfranchise Democrats. They&#x27;re adamant enough that it&#x27;s probably going to end up in the Supreme Court.[0]<p>* Holds an unannounced vote, with no debate, by secret ballot, on a day federal offices are closed, to gut the congressional office assigned to hold them accountable for corrupt behavior. If you didn&#x27;t read the linked story, the move basically puts the House Ethics Committee in charge of the investigations, which means Congress is voting to put itself in charge of monitoring the ethics of... Congress.<p>Republicans are whining about how the current system can be abusive, so their answer is to give a House committee more power over the process? The same House that spent years investigating Hillary Clinton over anything they could think of, <i>insisting</i> it had nothing to do with her running for president? The same House that then dropped all the investigations immediately after the election? More importantly than that, the same House that has had more than a dozen[1] members convicted of federal crimes since 2000?<p>This whole thing is already waaay into &quot;inappropriate rant&quot; territory, but I&#x27;m so, so saddened by these developments. This isn&#x27;t a question of political opinions coming into conflict, like with health care or climate policy or banking regulation. This is breaking the <i>system</i>.<p>0 - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;us&#x2F;wisconsin-redistricting-found-to-unfairly-favor-republicans.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;21&#x2F;us&#x2F;wisconsin-redistricting...</a><p>1 - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_American_federal_polit...</a>