According to Open Left, one day after Nancy Pelosi softened her public stance on a public option for health care, a lobbyist for the health insurance industry announced a fundraiser for her.
Previously, house speaker Pelosi had said that inclusion of a public option was non-negotiable, but according to CNN and AP, she — along with Senate majority leader Harry Reid — have changed their tunes and now reject non-negotiable demands.
Then, just a few hours later, Steve Elmendorf, a registered lobbyist for UnitedHealth announced a reception at his house featuring Pelosi, with an admission fee of $2400 ($5000 for members of Political Action Committees). You can even see a copy of the email sent out by Elmendorf.
But I guess in our neo-third-world country, such bribery is legal.
2 Comments
I’m really happy you included this story here. It shows (A) that hypocrisy knows no political boundary; and (B) you are being fair in your criticism of political hypocrisy (i.e., not just bashing one side). Good work, IK.
Corruption transcends political party.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) just released their list of most corrupt members of Congress, and it is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans:
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL)
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Of the 15, 8 are Democrats, but you might expect even more Dems since they have a supermajority.
One Trackback/Pingback
[…] Political Irony › Pelosi’s Payback […]