Finally, a government official who actually knows what the country thinks about the company he keeps. So remember kids to not hang out with "crooks and knaves and hustlers" or you will be considered one of them.

This guy needs to be VP, or a new position like "Captain Obvious."

It's not that the bill itself is self indictment but their opposition to it certainly is.

“With this proposal we are indicting ourselves, yielding and retreating to those who would tear this House down and denigrate us as crooks and knaves and hustlers…we cringe before our critics,” he said. “If we have no respect for ourselves—how to we expect it from anybody else?”

Caesar's wife pal.

Please keep us posted on the progression of this....any time I get to hear a gaggle of politicians squirm, it makes me feel like our system might be actually working.

Imagine if Obama gets elected. He passed the most sweeping ethics reform biil in IL in 20 years. There was a lot of kicking and screaming in that one too. But Obama's bill prevailed. He convinced both dems and republicans that it was the best thing to do.

That is some arm twisting.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS): "If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you'll vote no."

Sounds like they've got their first candidate for investigation.

Mighty reform foe Rep. John Murtha (D-PA): “We have a New York governor in the news right who shows that you can’t legislate ethics. It always comes down to the individual.”

And the second.

“With this proposal we are indicting ourselves, yielding and retreating to those who would tear this House down and denigrate us as crooks and knaves and hustlers…we cringe before our critics,” he said. “If we have no respect for ourselves—how to we expect it from anybody else?”

I feel the same way about all of those policemen out there on the streets and highways. How dare the government assume that some of we citizens might commit a crime?

That's right everybody, all Congresspeople are crooks and thieves and knaves, so why should we worry who gets elected, right?

Its not like elections matter, right?

Or do you think that an Al Gore Administration would have launched us into a war in Iraq after 9/11, if they would have even had a 9/11 under a Gore Administration.

There's some GOP talking points going on here that I do not care for at all.

Now, if you wanted to say all Republicans are crooks and thieves and knaves, well, okay then. And actually, that last quotefrom Abercrombie is not as far fetched as some seem to think:

“With this proposal we are indicting ourselves, yielding and retreating to those who would tear this House down and denigrate us as crooks and knaves and hustlers…we cringe before our critics,” he said. “If we have no respect for ourselves—how to we expect it from anybody else?”

If the Republicans hadn't blocked any ethics reforms whill engaging in the most profoundly unethical behaviors since 1992 or so, and if the Bush Administration weren't the greatest assemblage of crooks and thieves and knaves we've ever seen in this country, just look at HUD right now for instance, then perhaps Democrats under the prodding of these new vocal progressive advocacy groups that exist today might have actually taken steps to curtail the excesses, improved the election systems and so on. Maybe not, but we'll never know now.

And I find it pretty depressing to read the mindless Congress are crooks talking points here and elsewhere, as if that is the solution, accepting the premise of republican framing, then regurgitating it for all to see. Thanks, thanks very much.