Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[hawkerp]

ergo,

That doesnt surprise me about Delay. He's probably the most mean spirited of the bunch, but certainly not alone. I hold Terry McAuliffe in equal contempt for taking bribe money from Gary Winnick of Global Crossing. One day voters are going to understand that the best way to deal with corruption in government is to term-limit representatives. But I'm not holding my breath. From Tom Coburn, term-limitted bluedog republican from Oklahoma. "Breach of Trust" interview:

http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1755


LAMB: When were you -- can you remember the first time you were disappointed?

COBURN: Yes, when they arranged the term limit votes so that everybody could have a vote for term limits, but they engineered for sure that it wouldn`t pass.

LAMB: How`d they do that?

COBURN: They did a procedure called "Queen of the Hill," where you have to have a majority of votes for the bill to pass, but you get three options so everybody can vote for one of three options and say they voted for term limits, whether it`s six years, eight years, twelve years, but not one of them has enough votes to pass.

LAMB: Do they know they`re doing that?

COBURN: Oh, sure. Sure.

LAMB: Do they tell you they`re doing that? I mean, I say "they"...

COBURN: Well, they don`t say -- well, the leadership is the one that puts votes on the floor. And you know, I remember having kind of just some trepidation when I heard Dick Armey say that maybe we don`t need term limits, now that Republicans are in control. And so I kind of -- you know, I had a little suspicion something was coming, based on that statement.


PBS NOW last week did an expose on Delays loopback campaign financing in Texas. The video is not yet up on the website but can be found here under June 11 2004 program:

http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/archive.html