They Just Can't Help Themselves!

Remember all the rhetoric about "a culture of corruption" emitting from Dem House Speaker Pelosi. She wasn't talking about minimum-wage omissions for American Samoa, where Star-Kist, owned by Del Monte, a San Fran-based food consortium, because that would look like a special favor for a very huge constituent---and machined-based Dem politics she grew up with in Baltimore and the Italian-run SF machine just thrive on doing special favors for constituents.

The Washington Times points out the tiny oversight of American Samoa being omitted from the minimum-wage hike, and Barney Frank's furious reaction when an alert Rep Congressman asked for a vote to omit stem-cell research on American Samoa as well! BTW, the Republican leadership does not look much improved from the comatose Denny Hastert level, as the W Times notes:

Some Republicans who voted in favor of the minimum-wage bill were particularly irritated to learn yesterday -- after their vote -- that the legislation did not include American Samoa.

Of course, Pelosi rushed the legislation through without enough time to study it, but shouldn't alert Rep staffers have noticed this BEFORE it came to a vote?

And even the New York Times gagged on Sen. Reid's attempt to hide earmarks and had the following lede:

After campaigning for months on a promise to tighten ethics rules, Senate Democratic leaders tried unsuccessfully Thursday to block a measure that would shine a light on the shadowy practice of earmarking federal money for lawmakers’ pet projects.

Of course, the MSM should have suspected as much when they found Reid's extended family working out of his Senate office as lobbyists! But they were too busy chasing down Mark Foley for inappropriate e-mails. The NYT notes:

After the move to block it failed, Mr. Reid and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, argued vigorously against the measure, saying it could have unintended effects.

"Earmark disclosure will be a major change in the way the Senate works," Mr. Reid said. "We should adopt the Reid-McConnell version rather than the House version in the DeMint amendment. If we need to revisit the issue later, we can do that."

Mr. DeMint argued that if the original bill was not strengthened, "the public’s going to know from Day 1 that the idea of being open and transparent is just a scam."

Reid obviously overlooked the unintended irony of his remark that "Earmark disclosure will be a major change in the way the Senate works" because that was a large part of why the Republicans lost the Senate. Reid figured that his family firm recently moved out of his offices could still make hay because of "the way the Senate works," evidently, and that all that earmark-bashing would soon be forgotten after the election. Ditto Durbin.

DeMint's got a future, unlike McConnell and the Hastert-gang in the House, who are still asleep as they get snookered by Pelosi and her SF corporate Family.