Republicans

Buying Congress

This entry was posted in Capitalism Economics Libertarianism Politics Republicans US Politics on by

Henry at Crooked Timber offers congratulations to Congressman Billy Tauzin a republican from Louisiana:

CT extends its hearty congratulations to Congressman Billy Tauzin (R-La), who�s demonstrating his sincere attachment to free market virtues by retiring from politics and selling himself to the highest bidder.

Well, yea, Henry is being a bit tongue in cheek. Tauzin’s retirement plans (R) do have a peculiar (though common in Washington) stench.
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Henry also notes that:

Needless to say, Tauzin has been assiduous in his efforts to protect the interests of big pharma and the content industry over the last couple of years; it�s hard to believe that his grossly inflated salary is unconnected to services previously rendered.

If this assessment is true, and I agree with it, it appears to directly conflict any idea of “…attachment to free market virtues…” Rather more likely is that Tauzin has dedicated himself to both protecting the interests of his suitors not the citizens he his supposed to serve andstealing money from taxing you and I and finding ways to put the proceeds, unearned, into the pockets of others. This has nothing to do with free market virtues.
There is an interesting discussion in the comment thread regarding the causes of this long standing environment of subtle and not so subtle corruption that permeates the relationship between government at all levels and the clients the goverment protects regulates.
Update (Jan 25): Also see Marx, Incentives and Liberalism at Catallarchy.

Texas Redistricting

This entry was posted in Constitution Democracy Federalism Republicans on by

Stephen Green notes:

The reason the court didn’t rule on the wisdom of the Republican plan, is because the plan didn’t have any.

While it had no wisdom the plan’s gerrymandering goals were clear. But these goals have been shared by Democratic majorities in the past and James Joyner reminds us that the process is not inconsistent with current practice:

So, while unusual, the 2003 re-redistricting was the first legislatively created one ratified by the courts.

Steven Taylor has it right on redistricting:

Having said all of that, I am increasingly of the opinion that an entirely different system of districting needs to be developed that would do away with conscious partisan districtcraft, and would lead to more competitive elections.
There is no doubt that across the country whichever party is in charge has drawn the lines to their advantage to the detriment of seriously competitive electoral contests in many, many districts. The only good news is that voters don’t always cooperate with the best laid plans of mice and legislature, and vote the way they want.

Stephen Bainbridge also wants to see an end to redistricting partisanship:

My own hope is that eventually we will say “enough is enough” and get rid of all this partisan gerrymandering in favor of a nation-wide system of nonpartisan redistricting designed to maximize the number of competitive seats. But I’m not holding my breath.

We would probably pay much less attention to this type of thing if our representatives (at all levels) did not dabble in this kind of stuff (link via Zombyboy).

staffing, bush style

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David Niewart questions L’ Jean Lewis’s appointment as Chief of Staff of the Defense Department’s inspectors general office as follows:

It should be clear that any normative candidates for top staffing positions at any Inspector General’s office should be persons with spotless records and unquestionable reputations for professionalism, ethical behavior and personal integrity. That someone like L. Jean Lewis even made it past the door raises serious questions about just what standards were used. This goes well beyond mere cronyism.
Second: At no point in her career as a low-level RTC investigator did Lewis exhibit any level of managerial capability. Nowhere in her resume is there even an inkling that she possesses any personnel-management skills. What in God’s name could have qualified her to, out of the blue, rise through the ranks to suddenly oversee a staff of 1,240 people?
The only real quality that L. Jean Lewis exhibited at the RTC was her naked, almost psychotic eagerness to participate in partisan skulduggery.

David, in his usual thorough style, has multiple posts and lots of detail. See more at Atrios, Seeing the Forest, and many others.
If you aren’t already up on this story it will not make your day.
Via The Sideshow.