On the 4pm hour of CNN's The Situation Room, 'anchor' Jack Cafferty made the audience aware of Republicans attempting to reform lobbying procedures. Specifically, House Republicans are introducing a bill that would increase the reporting requirements for lobbyists who take members out to dinner or buy them expensive gifts. Before reading a description of the bill, Cafferty asked CNN watchers if they wanted to "laugh out loud", implying that you can not take this call for reform serious. Cafferty lamented his opinion by calling those who believe that Republicans are committed to lobbying reform, "retards".
Video link follows.
You want to laugh out loud? Listen to this. House Republican leaders announce their plan for lobbying reform, today. They're calling for a temporarily ban, temporarily, on privately funded travel by lawmakers and for lobbyists to disclose the gifts they give to House members. That's real draconian stuff, don't you think? House speaker Dennis Hastert said these recommendations will "sustain the integrity of the Congress as we move forward". Note to Mr. Hastert, the Congress has no integrity. There was no immediate reaction from Democrats who accused the Republicans of creating a culture of corruption. The Senate is working on its own legislation. But as you may recall, the Senate Committee recently rejected the vote for an independent ethics office. This whole thing is a joke. They must think that we're absolute retards of some kind. They've paid lip service to this stuff, there's no teeth in any of it, it's meaningless and they put out a press release saying, look what we did, we're preserving the integrity of the Congress. Unbelievable. Here's the question; what will be the end result of ethics reform on Capitol Hill?
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