I cannot think of a better time to talk about draining the swamp.
After all, we've got swampy weather. Plus a president whose administration is setting records for boggy behavior. 'Tis the season.
"The swamp has never been more foul or more fetid than under this president," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, when he and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi held a news conference on the steps of the Capitol to unveil a good-government agenda called "A Better Deal for Our Democracy." It's part of the overall Democratic election theme "A Better Deal."
Pop Quiz: Which do you think is the superior campaign slogan?
A) A Better Deal
B) The New Deal
C) The Fair Deal
D) Deal or No Deal
On the reform front, Better Deal has a lot of pieces, like making it easier for people to register to vote, increasing the political power of small donors and stronger ethics guidelines.
Who could possibly be against any of that? Well, somebody must, since they've never become law. Actually, while Republicans have in recent years been the big brake on reform, anything that affects elections makes elected officials nervous. So it's important to show a lot of enthusiasm when these ideas come up.
Anti-swamp proposals are bubbling up all over. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pushing for an Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act.
Her basic idea is to unravel some of the ties between the federal government and the corporate world that government is supposed to regulate. So you couldn't just leave your seat in Congress and go to work for a big financial or lobbying firm.
There's a lot of subsurface hostility to this in Congress. The members, who get around $174,000 a year (plus benefits), frequently convince themselves they're making a great financial sacrifice that will pay off later when they return to the private sector. Some can't even wait that long, like Rep. Duncan Hunter of California ...
Yes! We are going to get back to Duncan Hunter, the Republican who just got indicted for spending more than a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds for personal items that included airplane fare for the family rabbit.
The Trump era makes our normal problems with political ethics explode like spectacular, sleazy fireworks. It's not unusual for public servants to recycle themselves into lucrative jobs in lobbying or business. But this administration has been distinguished by the number of people who can't even wait until they leave the government to start getting payback.
For instance, there's the head of Trump's Environmental Protection Agency who got his staff to help his wife when she was trying to get a Chick-fil-A franchise. We like this story because it's such a stupendously tawdry case of greed - a lot like good old Congressman Hunter pretending golf clothes he purchased with campaign donations were really sports equipment for wounded warriors.
This fall could make a big difference. If the Democrats win a majority in the House, both parties need to feel that the voters demanded change because they want cleaner government. Not sure all the signals are going that way. Right now, polling in Hunter's district seems to suggest he can still get re-elected this fall.
Hunter's district is, as you can probably tell, very conservative. It's also very safe - he inherited the seat from his father. Cross your fingers and see if voters in a red district will be willing to take a stand against corruption and elect Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Palestinian-Mexican-American millennial to represent them in Washington.
Hey, stranger things have happened. For instance, Hunter's apparently paid back the $600 he used for the rabbit's plane flight.
The New York Times