A KEY TO REPUBLICAN ETHICS PROBLEMS IN THE HOUSE: DOC HASTINGS, YAKIMA'S CROOKED CONGRESSMAN

The GOP has been in power in the House for a very long time. In 1994 the country was sick of the arrogance and almost blasé corruption of the then long-entrenched Democratic Party. A new invigorated House Republican caucus led by firebrand Newt Gingrich put one over on the voters with a solemn promise that they would change things. Well, actually they did change things. But not what they promised to change. They said they would stop corruption. Instead they substituted Republican corruption, even more venal in scope and magnitude, for Democratic corruption. (Now my fear is that instead of real progressive reformers like Francine Busby, Coleen Rowley, Jerry McNerney, Ned Lamont, Rick Penberthy, Jan Schneider, honest and idealistic men and women who seriously want to fix the problem, the Democrats will wind up in Congress with sleazy, slimy pols like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer in control, realpolitik hacks who have long since discarded any sense of integrity or idealism in the quest for power-- just like Gingrich and DeLay.) I guess we'll have to deal with that after November. At least, I hope so (in a perverse way).

Now, we need to keep our eye on the ball that is still in the air: the Republican Culture of Corruption, systematically put in place by the worst of the worst, the worst lowlifes to ever stalk the halls of Congress (and K Street): Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Rick Santorum, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Jerry Lewis, Bill Frist, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Conrad Burns, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Deborah Pryce, Bob Ney and, in some ways, worst of all... Doc Hastings.

Who? Doc Hastings is the Republican Representative from Pasco, near Yakima, Washington and he was personally installed by his friend and ally, then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, to derail the House ethics committee and keep it from investigating the culture of corruption being fostered by DeLay and his crime network. When the actual Ethics chairman, Joel Hefley of Colorado allowed an investigation of DeLay to go forward (and eventually slightly chasten DeLay, the Little Bug Man, Capo di Tutti Capi of the Republican crime wave, fired Hefley, ruined his career, assigned his most corrupted lieutenant, Bob Ney to teach the GOP version of ethics to freshmen congressmen, and installed the corrupt, slavish hack Hastings as head of the historically bipartisan committee. Hastings did a great job-- for DeLay.

Today's Seattle Times does an unflattering profile on Hastings called "Ethics Panel Stalled; What's Up Doc?" The Times starts off by explaining how Hastings was able to avoid pressure to investigate blatant criminals like Cunningham, Ney, and, of course, DeLay, all men either now in or soon headed for lives behind bars.

"Since 2005, newspaper editorials have denounced Hastings & Co. for 'nap time' on the 'do-nothing' 'feckless' and 'inert' ethics committee, accusing it of 'flatlining' and 'ossifying.' Unmoved, Hastings hasn't responded to the criticism. But he is papering the press about such issues as asparagus growers, the apple industry and Northwest wineries... Even GOP members have questioned the ethics committee's credibility recently. A frustrated Republican proposed a congressional inspector general to look into ethics issues, saying the committee is paralyzed."

Hastings has been coming under increasing pressure to explain why he has derailed not just the Ethics Committee in Congress but actually conspired to rid the U.S. Congress of ethics itself! And then there's the little matter of Hastings' involvement with Abramoff's slave labor colony in the Marianas Islands. Hastings refuses to answer any questions... about anything... except asparagus farming and wineries. In his 11 dreadful years in Congress he has held exactly one press conference in Washington, DC. The guy is so lame and clueless that his official campaign website is crawling with pictures of Dick Cheney, a man so reviled by Americans that he is less admired than OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson and barely beats out Paris Hilton on the popularity spectrum. Maybe he thinks no one notices.

Although Hastings resides in the very heart of the Culture of Corruption, his remote district is so red and so out-of-touch, that almost no one considers him to be vulnerable unless a mega-tsunami of revulsion with the Republican rubber-stamp Congress sweeps virtually the whole pack of them out of power in November. The Democrat who is challenging him in WA-04 is Richard Wright, the kind of good-government type who would give a corrupt sleazebag like Hastings nightmares if he represented a less partisan district.