Watching the Watchmen

As I'm sure you noticed, a few days ago House Republicans held a quick, secret vote amongst themselves and decided to try and ram through without debate, a bill that would seriously weaken the policing of their own ethics. Some said it was like bank robbers voting to get rid of guards and security cameras, and to make it illegal for tellers to testify as to who pointed the gun at them. There was a public outcry against the bill — gee, I wonder why — and they reversed course and dropped the bill…for now. Some or all of it will probably return.

The website Talking Points Memo has been trying with limited success to find out which members of Congress voted for this idea in the first place. Some refuse to say, which probably means they were all in favor of no one being in a position to prosecute them if they accepted bribes, sought reimbursement for what they'd spent on hookers and cocaine, or molested small children and/or animals. It's probably not fair to presume that those who voted for this bill or wouldn't say that they opposed it are engaged in at least one of those activities. But I might anyway.