Every Congressman Asked To Choose Between The Banksters And The Voters

Late yesterday the House was asked to concur with a Senate amendment that would impose an additional tax on bonuses received from bailed out TARP recipients. Having to give up a small part of outrageous bonuses seems like a cheap price to pay. Most people I know would rather see them give back the whole bonuses or, better yet, their heads. But the House voted overwhelmingly, 276-145, to tax the bonuses. Thirty-four Republicans, fingers to the wind, abandoned their crazy leadership, leaving Boehner and Cantor sputtering, and scurried across the aisle to vote with the Democrats.

I wonder how his new GOP pals in Alabama will feel about hearing that Parker Griffith had stumbled back acrosss the aisle to vote with his old party. Of course Republicans looking towards general elections where they'll have to pass themselves off as relatively sane and dodge the corruption bullet-- like notorious bankster buddies Mark Kirk (IL) and Mike Castle (DE) running for Senate seats-- ran from Boehner and Cantor as though they saw cooties crawling on their shoulders. So did many of the most endangered Republican incumbents, from Leonard Lance (NJ), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL) and Charlie Dent (PA) to Mary Bono Mack (CA) and Brian Bilbray (CA).

Still many of the biggest bribe-takers in the history of the House, the ones whose careers were most conspicuously financed by Big Finance, were the ones who abandoned their constituents and voted with the banksters yesterday. Here are the 10 worst:

Spencer Bachus (R-AL- $4,167,924)
Eric Cantor (R-VA- $3,797,035)
John Boehner (R-OH- $3,377,649)
Roy Blunt (R-MO- $3,060,005)
Pete Sessions (R-TX- $2,981,190)
Ed Royce (R-CA- $2,856,282)
Pat Tiberi (R-OH- $2,492,934)
Jeb Hensarling (R-TX- $2,478,100)
David Dreier (R-CA- $2,215,688)
Paul Ryan (R-WI- $1,740,165)

And, yes, of course Blue Dogs Bobby Bright (AL), Jim Cooper (TN) and John Tanner (TN) voted with the Republicans.