And by the ‘House’ I mean the ‘Democrats.’ The House Chief Administrative Officer is Dan Beard: he’s the one who made the formal request, we didn’t have a say in his selection, and we’ve been objecting to his rather naked partisanship for years.
Anyway, this time it’s for ‘incumbent protection’ - and by incumbent protection I mean ‘keeping the Democrats at their troughs‘:
The House wants to increase Members’ office budgets next fiscal year by almost 15 percent, partly because 2010 is an election year and lawmakers anticipate a surge in franked mail.
[snip]
“It’s an incredibly naked admission that Members of Congress abuse the franking privilege for electoral purposes, even though the rules say they don’t,” said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union. “This sends the worst possible message not only to the taxpayers, but to the electoral system as a whole.”
Ed Morrissey’s not buying the rather lame excuse offered by the Democrats - that ‘election year’ was meant generically, and not as the aforementioned ‘incredibly naked admission’ - and there’s no reason that he should, really. The only people that particularly need to believe this explanation are the ones who are so loyal that they will accept any attempt to cover up the Democratic Party leadership’s inadvertent blurting out of the truth there.
And by ‘loyal’ I mean, of course, ‘dumb.’
Moe Lane
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
so Dan Beard is doing what Jack Russ did until 1992
pilgrim Thursday, May 7th at 10:52AM EDT (link)In those days the seargant-at-arms had the same responsibilities the House Chief Administration Officer has today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/19/us/2-year-sentence-in-the-house-bank-scandal.html
It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man.Calvin Coolidge
Is there any way for the House GOP to refuse this money?
suzieQ Thursday, May 7th at 11:22AM EDT (link)In the same way as Gov. Sanford refusing the stimulus money, this would show a stark difference between the left and right sides of the house. The House GOP worked together as a single monolithic block on both the stimulus and the omnibus budget. If they ALL refuse this money as well it would send a clear signal to the voters of who is really trying to save them money.
“It’s finally happened: Abortion stopped a bleeding heart.”
- Ann Coulter, January 25, 2006
“My concern about the role of the federal government is that an intrusive government, a government that says, ‘Don’t worry, we will solve your problems’ is a government that tends to crowd compassion out of the marketplace, that too often in the past people said: ‘Somebody else will take care of the problem in my area. Don’t worry. The government is here.’”
- George W. Bush October 31, 2000
“Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today in Iraq. In fact, Saddam Hussein would almost certainly still be in control of Kuwait.”
- Dick Cheney
Oh you right wing fanatics!! It's purely 'coincidental' that it's an election year..and Dem's are in charge..NT
USNJIMRET Thursday, May 7th at 12:06PM EDT (link)