Debt-loving Congressman
From The Hill (scroll down about halfway down the page for the item “Trimming the debt”), we learn that Randy Kuhl has a massive amount of credit card debt:
Reps. Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) have both expanded their liabilities. They were in the $40,000-$115,000 range in 2003, but Kuhl now has racked up $55,000-$165,000 in debt.
It’s good to know he’s consistent. I’d hate to think he had more interest in his own financial solvency than in that of the United States government.
Well said.
Reps who aren’t independently wealthy tend to be debt-heavy because they know that they’ll be able to cash in big time when they retire to become lobbyists. Randy’s apparently no exception.
Good point. Maybe this is something we should work up a post on later.
I’d be interested in the “progressive” take on this. My own view is that the corrupting nature of the current mode of campaign financing is underappreciated by the DailyKos/MoveOn wing of the Democratic party. Perhaps that’s because campaign finance reform cuts across party and ideology - look at McCain and Feingold versus, say, Mitch McConnell and Charlie Schumer. The former recognize the corrosive nature of big money, the latter embrace it.
I think the “progressive: wing of the Democratic party is okay on this issue, but the Schumer wing is almost as dirty as the Republicans (I do have to say “almost” in light of the Abramoff scandal). It goes back to the distinction that exists for me between the Democratic resistance (Feindgold and at least some of the blogosphere) and the Vichy Democrats (Hillary, Schumer, Biden, etc.).
Perhaps you could say it this way: “The Schumer wing aspires to be as dirty as the Republicans, but their aspirations have been thwarted since they are currenty out of power.”
I wouldn’t go that far either, Rottenchester. The Republicans in the House right now are worse than the Democrats were in 1994 as far as this sort of corruption goes. And they’ve put together this patronage/bribery system in only 12 years, while the Dems had 60 to assemble theirs. I think the federal Republicans are just better at it.
I’m not 100% sure of my argument here as it pertains to Schumer, since it is true that the worst abuses were in the House , not the Senate. I still want to say that McConnell is worse than Schumer, but I can’t prove it.