Breitbart may want to present this without comment…
…but I have no intention of following suit. Let’s look at that list, shall we?
- Bennie Thompson. Ended up being Homeland Security chair. Scandals: credit card company extortion, improper contributions from lobbyists.
- Juanita Millender-McDonald. De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.
- Alcee Hastings. Did not in fact become Intelligence chair, largely because the man is an impeached federal judge.
- Tom Lantos. Also de mortuis nihil nisi bonum. Because I am being nice, here.
- John Conyers. Ended up being Judiciary chair. Scandals: abuse of governmental authority, using his position to cover up family members’ corruption, and hey! His wife went to jail for bribery.
- Nick Rahall. Ended up being National Resources chair. Scandals: well-known hardcore Tea Party group* CREW called him one of the most corrupt Members of Congress.
- Louise Slaughter. Ended up being Rules chair. Scandal… well, Louise always was a brazen hypocrite when it came to lobbying. This was the event that confirmed to veteran Hill-watchers that all that talk in 2006 about draining the swamp of corruption was, to use the technical term, hokum.
- Bart Gordon. Ended up being Science chair, up until the point that he retired hastily. Scandals: involved in rather messy (yet under-reported) Tim Mahoney scandal in 2008, abuse of taxpayer funds to go skiing in Europe.
- Nydia Velázquez. Ended up being Small Business chair. “Scandal:” …sitting on her rear and doing nothing. I mean NOTHING. By this list’s standards that’s practically praiseworthy. On the other hand, the Small Business League considers her to be made out of antimatter.
- James Oberstar. Ended up being Transportation and Infrastructure chair. Scandal: …being James Oberstar. When it came to earmarking, Oberstar was a master at his craft: we will not see his like again, and thank any deity that you care to for that.
- Charles Rangel. …They really made him Ways and Means chair. That made some Democrats squirm. Scandals: When Charlie Rangel finally retires the needle on Congress’s corruption meter will descend by a small, yet significant, amount. I admit it: I don’t know how to get rid of this guy. Goodness knows that we’ve tried. I am forced to respect the fact that Rangel has a high level of skill at political survival. I don’t often admit it, but I have to, here.
So, basically… all in all, I’m going to have to say that Bob Filner was pretty… representative of that list. Where the former Veterans Affairs chair made his mistake, tactically speaking, was in using his position to assault women**; if he had simply used his position to feather his nest, then spent the money on prostitutes, Filner probably wouldn’t in the mess that he is in today.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: Yeah, this particular T-shirt is almost blindingly accurate.
*Sarcasm.
**That’s me speaking dispassionately. Bob Filner in fact deserves to be thrown into a monastery for the rest of his life, so that he may properly contemplate his sins.