Ethics Schmethics, who cares anyway?

Are Washington Rules Really Changing?

Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who was just convicted after misconduct that prosecutors say spanned nearly two decades, was just one of many government insiders who forgot they’re supposed to be public servants.

Foggo, who rose to the No. 3 spot in the CIA during the Bush administration, apparently got his mistress hired to a $100,000-a-year job that she couldn’t do and steered millions in federal contracts to a friend, who is already serving time.

Foggo’s actions took quite a bit of chutzpah, but he’s far from unique in that.

Take, for example, Sen. Roland W. Burris and his many-layered story about dealings with now-deposed Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich. Prior to being appointed to the Senate, not only did Burris forget to tell the public he tried to raise money for the former governor, he also forgot to mention that Blagojevich gave his son a $75,000 job.

Instead of apologizing or resigning, as many in his own party and state have encouraged, Burris got mad at the media, said he’s not going anywhere and added he would no longer respond to questions from the press.

If that’s not audacious enough, consider bankers getting billions in federal bailout money now have the unmitigated gall to charge unemployed workers to use state-issued ATM cards to access their benefits. This, on the heels of multi-million dollar bonuses paid to executives and plans to continue with swanky employee trips after receiving taxpayer dollars.

But wait, I’m not done yet.

At the same time these banks were struggling for survival, several of them gave millions to politicians, including the two main presidential candidates in the last election cycle.

Want more? How about the mayor of Los Alamitos, California who emailed colleagues a photo of the White House lawn planted with watermelons. Dean Grose wants his constituents to believe that he was “unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons,” according to The Associated Press.

On Friday, the mayor did what Burris won’t: He resigned.

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First Lady's Official Portrait, Do you like?

First lady Michelle Obama's official portrait was released Friday by the White House, a month after her husband's came out. The first lady is wearing a black sleeveless dress, white pearls -- and a smile. The photo was taken by White House photographer Joyce N. Boghosian in the Blue Room of the White House, NBC News reported.

So now we have a 'watermelon' lawn... post-racial my arse!

From the Associated Press

The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."

Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account on Sunday and wants a public apology.

"I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes," Price told The Associated Press. "I honestly don't even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin'-mayor - come on."

The Orange County Register first reported the e-mail on its Web site Tuesday night.

Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

He said he and Price are friends and serve together on a community youth board.

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

Grose, who became mayor in December, said he sent an apology e-mail to Price and her boss and also left her a voicemail apology.

Regardless, Price said it will be difficult for the two to work together.

"Now I am like - wow, is this really how he feels?" Price said.

Los Alamitos is a 2¼-square-mile Orange County city of around 12,000 people. The mayor is elected by fellow members of the five-seat City Council.

President Replaces N-Word

Link

Nothing rhymes with President, it's multisyllabic... LOL

Okay, you gotta click and I dare you to tell me that you didn't laugh!

Bipartisanship? Don't Count On It

By Tracie Powell

Republican Senator Judd Gregg’s dismissal of President Obama’s offer to serve as Commerce secretary - on the heels of a stimulus bill passed almost entirely along partisan lines - shows that bipartisanship in this town is just a word that doesn’t carry much weight.

Obama should have known better. After all, it was the new RNC Chairman Michael Steele who first put him on notice when he said last month that “bipartisanship is overrated.” Funny, Steele (like Obama) talked a lot about change when he campaigned, but that was before he won the chairmanship.

And say what you want about Rush Limbaugh, but the man was just being honest when he said that he hopes Obama fails.

Quiet as it’s kept, more than a few Republicans probably share Limbaugh’s wishes, says Allan Lichtman, a presidential historian at American University. “I think Republicans believe that their only chance to win is by being in staunch opposition, and if (Obama’s) policies fail, to be in a position to then make major gains in the midterm elections of 2010.”

In terms of appearances, Obama has gone above and beyond to reach out to members of the Republican Party. Problem is, nobody’s reaching back.

There was a time when presidents were more interested in policy than politics, said Richard Skinner, a government and legal studies professor at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Starting with Ronald Reagan there has been a rise in partisan presidencies; George W. Bush, however, brought partisanship to a new extreme “perhaps to the point when practice becomes pathology,” said Skinner, who wrote an article about the topic in a recent issue of Political Science Quarterly.

Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter all sought a nonpartisan image, reaching out to voters instead of party leaders. And, according to Skinner, Eisenhower openly displayed apathy toward the GOP while Richard Nixon and Johnson actually distrusted their respective national party committees.

“The past quarter century has seen a reversal of the trend toward weaker relationships between presidents and their parties,” Skinner writes. “Beginning with Ronald Reagan, recent presidents have increasingly relied upon their parties for support both in the electorate and in the Congress. They have presented a more distinctively partisan image to voters and have found it difficult to cultivate support from the opposition.”

To his credit Obama seems to be seeking a return to a more conciliatory time in which presidents relied less on vociferous extreme party wings and more on competent professionals.

In addition to the Gregg nomination, Obama added Texas Republican Ray LaHood to his cabinet and is keeping Bush appointee Robert Gates as Defense secretary. Before that, he placed prominent Republicans in high profile positions in events leading up to his inauguration and invited Republicans into his inner sanctum to discuss the stimulus bill before it even went up for a vote. When it came time to vote, not a single Republican in the House voted for the bill, and all but three shunned it in the Senate.

This week the GOP tried to say it was Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi who they have problems with, not Obama. But that too is circumspect upon closer examination.

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Is the Congressional Caucus Still Necessary?

You may have seen stories lately questioning the usefulness of Black History Month (click here, here and here) and pondering the relevancy of organizations like the Congressional Black Caucus.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act and millions of people — disproportionately minority — face losing their homes to foreclosure, the caucus says it can make the case that it is needed more now than ever.

“The Congressional Black Caucus is as relevant today as it was when it was first organized back in 1971,” Rep. Barbara Lee , the new chairwoman of the caucus, said recently.

“What we have to determine now is how to move our people and make them a part of the democratic process as President-elect Obama called for during the campaign.”

Obama’s election, Lee said, “provides us a unique opportunity to enact legislation to fill the moral gaps in our society. We have to be bold in addressing the issues he has raised, from foreclosures and jobs to health care and education . . . . (and) confront the problems of poverty head-on.”

The black caucus has 43 members, including several who hold sway over plum committees in the House: founder John Conyers, D-Mich., chairs the House Judiciary Committee, while Charles B. Rangel , D-N.Y., heads one of the most powerful committees of all, Ways and Means.

Members of the CBC, as it’s known in these parts, also control 15 subcommittee chairmanships and just last month laid claim to perhaps one of its biggest victories to date when one of its own became the president of the United States.

The real question is whether the CBC will translate those leadership positions into policy successes.

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WHAT THE NEW CHAIRMAN PICK SAYS ABOUT THE GOP

By Tracie Powell

A black president and a black Republican Party chairman: Things just got a lot more interesting in Washington.

On Friday – after losing two consecutive elections – the Republican elite selected former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, the GOP’s first African American chairman, to lead them out of the political wilderness.

But is Steele the person who can help Republicans reach out and expand the party base, or is he just a pretty face to put out front while party strategy remains the same?

Riding in on the wave of change, President Obama repeatedly seized upon Abraham’s Lincoln name during his run for the White House, so the election of Steele might be seen as a scale-balancer for the party Lincoln actually belonged to.

Steele could be just what Republicans need to extend the party base by appealing to more than just white, Southern conservatives.

To achieve this, the GOP needs more than just a black face, or any face of color for that matter, said David Bositis, Senior Research Associate with The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “He will project less of the Southern imagery for the party, which is good. But I’m not sure (Steele) will really be able to succeed,” Bositis said. “The party needs to change — not just superficially, but real change.”

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