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Congressmen fly in the face of ethics
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered May 10, 2007 12:00pm |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Media | Newspaper - Chicago Tribune |
| News Date | Thursday, May 10, 2007 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Published May 9, 2007
Americans who fly (not congressmen, but us peasants) have to put up with a lot to collect our frequent flier miles.
The long lines, the aggravation and, worst of all, having to take your shoes off at the metal detector, where you unwittingly step onto the moist perspiration of sockless barbarians who've gone before. Then you get crammed into tiny seats, wedged between one guy who won't shut up and another guy who smells of Cinnabons.
But not members of the U.S. House of Representatives. They no longer have to step in the moist footprints of common voters because they've quietly come up with a new program: Congressional Friendship Miles.
Congressional Friendship Miles isn't a formal name. It just popped into my head, but it's catchy.
Back in January, the House smartly enacted a ban on members accepting air travel on private jets because of all the scandals.
They got tired of it, though, and last Wednesday, at 11:59 p.m. with nobody paying much attention because most of the country was asleep, they had a voice vote to enact a modification of their travel ban.
Now, if someone wants to offer the use of a private plane to a congressman, the congressman can accept it, with one caveat. The congressman must have an existing "personal friendship" with the person providing the air travel.
Lobbyists can have friends, too, can't they?
"It's a gigantic ethics loophole," said Melanie Sloan, of the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. "It's a joke. And no one is going to complain.
"Are House members going to hold hearings to determine if a lobbyist is a member's personal friend?" she said. "Will that member submit evidence, like friendship bracelets?"
Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Sloan overstated her case. |
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