My favorite show on television deals with the antics of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. The show, "Boston Legal," is such a trip in the wacky world of the characters that I feel properly prepared for the next day's real news.
Trying to believe what happens on Boston Legal might be possible helps me to understand such improbabilities as our representative actually coming up with lobby reform or even our government run by the oil men for the oil men launching meaningful investigations into fuel price gouging.
"The Lobbyist Empowerment Act," editorial by the New York Times has this to say.
The House Republican leaders managed a new feat of cravenness during the recent recess, hollowing out their long promised "lobbying reform" bill to meet the dictates of — who else? — Washington's power lobbyists.
During two weeks of supposed inactivity, the leadership bill was chiseled down at the behest of K Street to an Orwellian shell of righteous platitudes about transparency and integrity. The measure to be debated this week has been stripped of provisions to require full disclosure of lobbyists' campaign fund-raising powers and V.I.P. access in Congress. The measure buries all attempts at instituting credible ethics enforcement in the House.
It's hard to say much more than that, but the Washington Post comes up with some good text in their article, "Sham Lobbying Reform."
If the Senate-passed measure was a disappointment, the House version is simply a joke -- or, more accurately, a ruse aimed at convincing what the leaders must believe is a doltish public that the House has done something to clean up Washington.
Why we would expect lobbying reform out of this group of representatives is beyond me. They've ignored investigating a war that didn't need to happen, and they continue to spend money like there is no tomorrow. It's almost like they're addicted to spending money.
Maureen Dowd penned another of her colorful commentaries on the situation this morning. Her article, "A Prius in Every Pot," is almost as good as a dose of Boston Legal.
Gasoline prices may be hurting average folks, but the oilers who helped put the Boy King and the Duke of Halliburton in office with lavish donations are enjoying record profits and breathtaking bonuses.
The Oilmen in the Oval, incompetent in so many ways, have brilliantly achieved one of their main objectives: boosting the fortunes of the oil industry and the people who run it.
All those secret meetings the vice president had back in 2001, letting the energy and oil big shots help write our energy policy — one that urged more oil and gas drilling — worked like a charm. In all their years in government, Mr. Cheney and the Bushes have never done anything to hold the oil companies' feet to the fire, or get Americans' feet off the gas pedal.
As Representative James Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, noted, "The Republicans are the party with the keys to the executive washrooms of Halliburton, Exxon and the big oil corporations."
I suspect we'll see some tough measures for the oil men from this administration about the time Denny Crane on Boston Legal decides that he needs to act normally. Considering he managed to shoot his therapist twice in the last episode including once while the therapist was on the witness stand in court, I doubt the oil executives have much to worry about from the current administration. After all why would they bite the hand that feeds them.
Boston Legal is also my favorite show :) Two and a Half Men runs a very close second. Boston Legal makes me laugh and makes me smarter. Two and a Half Men makes me laugh and makes me dumber. So it's a good balance ;)
Sean
Posted by: Sean Pecor | April 28, 2006 at 06:09 AM