''Congressional Culture of corruption VS Howard Dean''

"The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, in a study of public records of every congressional trip between January 2000 and mid-2004 sponsored by non-profit organizations, found that seven of the top 10 trip-takers were Democrats.

"Howard Dean is pretty much out there on his own [among Democrats] in trying to take on the 'culture of corruption,' " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the nonpartisan group that drafted the complaint Bell filed against DeLay in June 2004.

"The Democrats [in the House] talk a good game, but that's all," she added. "They're afraid to do anything that could blow back on them. They're all about the boys and girls club that Congress is."

Is it any wonder that we have to consistently cave to the republican agenda when our leading congresspeople are equally (if not more so) dipping at the trough of lobbyist cash and perks?
This insider thinking is of course a symptom of the cancer in the system that must be removed in order for the people of this country to regain effective control of the government.

What it means is that there will be plenty of insider resistance to anything Howard Dean does, because upsetting the apple cart is not good for anyone who wants to protect their cushy insider jobs. The resistance will be pronounced at times, much as it was during the fake outcry over Gov. Dean's recent "controversial" comments on the constituency of the republican party.

What we can do is vow to raise money for this cause, and send DFA or the DNC five or ten bucks every time someone criticizes Howard Dean. This technique has raised well over a million dollars thus far between DFA and the DNC from a grassroots level. The idea, folks, is to show well-meaning congresspeople they have nothing to fear when they refuse to take lobbyist money or perks because such honor will be rewarded.

We've shown our People Power before; but expect during this long fight to be called upon again and again. Only then can we expect an actual change. In the year since then-Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) filed a complaint that triggered the current ethics investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), not one Democrat has initiated another complaint despite the pleas of outside watchdog groups. Maybe we can show them the error of their ways. But Bell believes there has been a resumption of the unofficial ethics "truce" — Republican and Democratic leaders won't acknowledge it ever existed — between the parties that held for some seven years before his complaint against DeLay.

"Only in Washington does a 'truce' on ethics make sense," he said. Only in Washington does corruption go unpunished, but not for long. Ask "Duke" Cunningham."-from the post on the Ventura County for Democracy website.