...And This Year's Ironic Cup Winner!!

You may remember my mentioning the Ironic Cup in the past.

It's my little way of rewarding those individuals who, for whatever reason, simply don't seem to understand the irony of their actions.

Like a civil rights lawyer getting slapped with a fine for manhandling the cameraman for a civil rights documentary.

Or maybe like Jacques Cousteau's son getting bitten by a shark, while filming a shark safety video.

But we have a winner for 2006.

And her name is Nancy Pelosi.


Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic House Minority Leader, and is expected to become Speaker of the House following the inauguration of the new Congress next year.

As a way to celebrate victory for her party, she decided to clean house. Errr, House.

What I mean to say is that she's proposed a new bill, the Honest Leadership And Open Government Act of 2006 ([H.R.4682 IH, as entered in the House, and S. 2180.IS, in the Senate.]) which is A. draconian as hell, B. not likely to pass, and C. a damn fine, and needed, piece of legislation.

You didn't expect me to say C, did you?

However, what this proposed law does is:

*Drastically limits lobbying, in any form (which is why it'll never pass;)
*Bans sitting members of Congress from receiving ANY gifts from lobbyists;
*Requires disclosure of lobbying efforts directed at members of Congress;
*Creates an Office of Public Integrity whose sole purpose is to root out financial shenanigans on the part of our elected officials;
*Requires that Congress actually be in session for at least 4 days a week for at least 20 weeks or it cannot adjourn for the year;
*Requires that a period of time be available from the time a bill is introduced until it is available for voting - to require the members to read it before voting;
*Requires that a bill passed by Congress cannot have riders attached to it after the vote is taken;
*Several regulations on campaign finance;
*and a ton of modifications to prevent horseshitting with government contracts.

AWESOME bill.

Here's why it wins the Ironic Cup, in three parts.

Part 1.

House Resolution 2564, also known as the Fox Amendment, was a bill to prohibit lobbyists from giving gifts to members of Congress or their employees. It failed, when it came up for a vote on November 28th, 1995.

Nancy Pelosi voted against it. You can click on the Democrats on the voting list at the link above, and scroll on down to "P" to see for yourself.

She's currently making a big deal about a law that should - sadly WON'T - pass, which she wrote herself, after previously voting against a bill to provide one of the very protections against abuse her bill propounds. Irony #1: check.

Part 2.

Nancy Pelosi's bill also regulates campaign finance, specifically to prevent Tom DeLay-style crookedry.

Here's the problem. In 2004, not one, but TWO, political action committees linked with Minority Leader Pelosi were caught breaking the same identical rules that Tom DeLay did. The FEC ruled that they had broken the law, and they were fined $21,000 for doing so.

So, now she's created a bill to outlaw specifically conduct of which she herself is guilty. Nice. Irony #2: check.

Part 3.

Since the bill regulates disclosure for campaign finance, let's look at Minority Leader Pelosi's finances, shall we? Hmmmm...

Well, of her top 20 campaign contributors, 17 are unions.

Considering she represents San Francisco, a liberal bastion if ever there was one, and has faced no serious Republican opposition candidate for election - ever, this makes sense. However, what makes me go "Hmmmm..." is this: of her total contributions not coming from individuals over the last few years, despite her authoring a bill requiring full disclosure for campaign finance, she's still unable to disclose the sources of $77,000 or so of her own campaign contributions.

Irony #3: check.

Representative Pelosi, for authoring a bill that punishes the very conduct of which you yourself are guilty, in not one, but two ways, and outlawing something you voted FOR earlier, you are in fact this year's Ironic Cup Winnar.

Congratulations!

Secretly, I hope your bill passes. It won't, but I hope it does. Of course, you might be in a bit of hot water yourself, then, hey?

Not-so-secretly, that'll be funny as hell.