An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

If you'd like to sign the petition it's located at The Truth Laid Bear.

I won't be signing. The reason?

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

Perhaps I am naive but, I think if you welcome a little corruption you might as well welcome the whole enchilada. If you kill all the cancer except a teeny-tiny little bit over there that's just too hard to get at, well, it will just grow again.

The nature of Washinton tends toward corruption, to think otherwise is naive in my opinion. Our job as citizens and voters is to watch our officials like hawks and not allow them the freedom to wallow in corruption and filth as is their nature.

I would like to see some sort of citizen watch initiated to keep an eye on our representatives. Because they have made it clear they are incapable of keeping their houses clean. Perhaps if they were to be treated like the children they are we might see some effective change.

But hey, that's just me.

What say you?