The New Era of GOP Leadership: Boehner

And guess what? The new House Majority Leader thinks that, in spite of tremendous corruption in Congress based around abuses by Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay and their calculated system of dirty business, despite the fact that now at least one GOP Representative has resigned and plead guilty to corruption charges from lobbiests, and Boehner's successor as Majority Leader put in place such a system that has him currently under indictment for his work with lobby groups...

Boehner, who ran on a ticket of GOP reform in the government to some extent, says that everything is just hunky dory. Don't change a thing, he says, when it comes to the way lobbyists work in Congress:

Newly elected House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said he opposed efforts to ban privately funded travel for members of Congress and provisions in spending bills that fund lawmakers' pet projects.

The views of Boehner, elected by his GOP colleagues on Thursday to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), make it less likely that the more far-reaching proposals to restructure lobbying will become law. In interviews on a pair of television talk shows, Boehner amplified his earlier concerns about such broad responses to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including proposals offered by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

"In the past, when these scandals have erupted, what's happened is Congress has overreacted, and two days later nobody knew what happened," he said on "Fox News Sunday." He said he would favor more disclosure of dealings with lobbyists but would not seek complete bans on travel or "earmark" provisions. "Bringing more transparency to this relationship, I think, is the best way to control it. But taking actions to ban this and ban that, when there's no appearance of a problem, there's no foundation of a problem, I think, in fact, does not serve the institution well."

That's just a lovely position, isn't it?

Although, one could certainly assume that it is a perfectly reasonable position coming from such a noble, ethical Congressman like Rep. Boehner, who, literally, handed out checks from the Tobacco lobby on the floor of the House during voting sessions.