Hypocrisy at the Highest Levels

Where could you read these words?

End the Practice of Writing Legislation Behind Closed Doors: As president, Barack Obama will restore the American people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent. Obama will work to reform congressional rules to require all legislative sessions, including committee mark-ups and conference committees, to be conducted in public.

You will find this paragraph at President Obama's Change.gov website, or at least until it becomes too embarrassing for his people and they take it down.

Try to square this with the push to pass the Porkulus (Stimulus) Bill in which no lawmaker in either House or Senate actually had time to read the 1,071 page document. Copies of the bill were not made available until 7 p.m. EST last night. It's estimated that it would take over 36 non-stop hours of normal reading (without questions, dinner breaks, or trips to the john) to read the entire thing.

By the bye, the House voted a bit ago to pass the bill, 246-183. There was a rush on so that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could make her flight on an 8-day trip to Italy. That was more important than actually reading the bill.

Seven Democrats voted against it. Good for them.

One Democrat voted present. At least that's honest.

All but two Republicans voted "no" and the two in question did not vote.

Now it goes to the Senate where it may get a vote tonight, virtually sight unseen.

This is a sad day for America, chiefly because this bill will cause great harm, but also in some measure because there no longer is any pretense of the ruling powers paying any attention to the common sense legislative process of proposal and debate. The Congress is no longer a deliberative body, it's merely a place of power politics where the "winners" craft laws behind closed doors and ignore the voice (and desires) of We the People.

Pray for the survival of the Republic.