Cover Up of the Cover Up--just what we have to expect

Cover Up of the Cover Up

by Cenk Uygur

Today we find out that the House Ethics Committee is just too busy to be able to release their findings on the Mark Foley scandal before the election. No! You don't say! I would have never figured!

I would have thought that they would work diligently to make sure that the voters had all the information before the elections about the people they are voting on. The fact that the Ethics Committee won't deliver on another investigation comes as a huge shock to me. The fact that they'll release their so-called findings after they are largely irrelevant is very surprising.

I'm tired of having to deal with the media. Look at how the Associated Press covers the story: "The House ethics committee has been working hard to determine if Republicans covered up ex-Rep. Mark Foley's come-ons to former male pages, but even 12-hour work days won't bring conclusions by Election Day."

Come on. Poor Ethics Committee, they've been working so hard they assure the Associated Press, but as luck would have it, they just couldn't get the report out by Election Day. How do you put that in print? Your job isn't to be their spokesperson; your job is to be a reporter. How about a question challenging their completely unbelievable excuse? How about inquiring into the obvious -- perhaps they're holding off until after the election to spare their Republican colleagues.

Yes, I know there are Democrats on the committee. And it would come as a large shock to my system if they were not effective in holding their Republican colleagues accountable. I am sure they are worried about comity in the House, while the Republicans laugh their ass off at how they got the Democrats to go along with delaying the report until after no one cares about it.

They worked 12 hour days. Boo hoo. Not that I believe the AP reporter bothered to confirm that, my guess is he or she wrote it down dutifully when the Republican in charge told her about how hard they had been working. But even if it was true, then work 15 hour days and weekends. The elections are the only chance the people of this country have to hold their elected representatives accountable. If you issue reports of their wrongdoing after the elections are over, they are nearly completely irrelevant.

How many cover ups can we stand? How many more will you stomach as it happens right in front of your eyes? How many of you believed that the Ethics Committee would really issue findings before the election when they promised to try really hard? How many of you believe that politics had nothing to do with whether they put out the report right before or right after the election (other than the AP reporter who wrote the story)?

Now the cover ups are so deep that we have cover ups of the cover ups. If you let them back in charge, they will take it as a green light to keep doing exactly what they've been doing. Corruption. Cover up. Lie. Conceal. Cover up the cover up. Play the voters for fools. Hope they never catch on.

Are they right? Are the voters ever going to catch on?