Contract with America?

An anniversary passed recently, which went largely unremarked. Eleven years ago, Republicans came to the majority in Congress. Led by Newt Gingrich, these Republicans embraced a "Contract with America". The promise of rooting out corruption and restoring integrity and accountability to Congress was heady stuff indeed.

Since then, we have seen not only Congress, but also the White House, turn rotten at the core from the blatant corruption we see exemplified by the likes of Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Bob Ney, Karl Rove, and the list goes on. Abandoned is any pretext of adhering to the principles outlined in the "Contract":

# FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
# SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
# THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
# FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
# FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
# SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
# SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
# EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

There has been no oversight of, or attempts to hold accountable, either members of Congress or the Bush administration for their misdeeds. The "Contract" has been broken...The signatories, nearly 100 of whom still serve in the House, are forsworn. Instead of serving the American People, they choose to serve the monied interests which which fill their campaign war-chests.

With their promises and principles abandoned in the face of the twin temptations of power and money, our Congressional representatives, both Republican and Democrat, have become nothing more than pigs at the trough...A parliament of whores...A disgrace to the hopes and aspirations the Founding Fathers had for this nation. The time has come to sweep them all out with the rest of the trash and start afresh.