Wev

Some Republicans are obviously reading the polls and seeing that their culture of corruption may have gone too far, so now they’re calling for a return to the their “core conservative principles.”

With Republicans embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal that could threaten their control of Congress, the biggest pressure for reform is coming from lawmakers who charge that the party’s woes have come from abandoning its core conservative principles.

Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican congressman who co-led the petition drive that helped oust Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, said in an interview yesterday: “We don’t just need a new majority leader, we need a course correction.

“A lobbyist can’t be corrupt unless he has somebody to bribe, and we’ve created a culture that just breeds corruption,” he charged.

Their big ideas for reforming the GOP? Put an end to earmarking and emergency spending bills.

The conservatives are also hoping to reform the congressional budgeting process by sharply reducing the use of “emergency” spending bills, such as those that have paid for the war in Iraq and rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina.

Yes, because the biggest problem is D.C. right now is emergency spending in response to a fucking emergency.

Honestly, if these idiots cared about the corruption associated with emergency spending, they’d launch an investigation into how much of taxpayers’ money has gone to Halliburton and other corporations with ties to the administration, under the guise of emergency spending bills, rather than being concerned with the specific number of bills passed—which, when applied correctly, will be totally contingent upon how many emergencies there are. Process is the real issue; not quantity.

The hat tip on this one goes to John Howard, who notes, “Not that I'm a huge fan of core Republican principles, but I'll take them in a second over the ridiculous, out of control spending, bloated government, and corruption we currently enjoy.” Agreed. And yet, I highly doubt that anything remotely resembling core conservative principles will come out of all this, because it’s not motivated by principle. The culture of corruption was of little concern until their chances for reelection were threatened by it; with job security their primary impetus, I would be mighty surprised if anyone who manages to get reelected on this bullshit platform gives two craps about it once they’ve got another few years to wallow in unfettered avarice.