LegiStorm highlights “gotchas”
Michelle Bachmann
Although it was United States leaders who passed the laws declaring their salaries and expenditures public information, they are none too happy that people are taking advantage of those laws. Many leaders and Congressional staffers have lashed out at Jock Friedly, creator of LegiStorm, a searchable online database that reveals government salaries, foreign gifts and how much they spend on plane tickets.
Perhaps they are just angry because LegiStorm keeps a running blog of ways it has made them look foolish.
News on top of numbers
Go to LegiStorm.com, and today the top story highlights the fact that during the recession congressional staffers’ bonuses have been among the highest recorded. Another story highlights the completion of the 2008 salary report. Come an’ get it!
Scroll down farther, and you’ll find stories about individual members of Congress and ways LegiStorm has gotten them in trouble. I haven’t seen a story about a payday loan regulation advocate taking out payday loans, but if that ever happens, it’ll be on there.
The proof is on the World Wide Web
A March 17 post on the LegiStorm blog quotes Rep. Michelle Bachmann: “I have not taken earmarks in the last three years that I’ve been in Congress, because the system is so corrupt.”
However, the numbers tell a different story. Turns out, in the last three years Bachmann has sponsored seven earmarks. Two of those she even sponsored all on her own.
Random information
Well, there will be plenty of time to go over the stories on the blog that point out lies and conflicts of interest. However, I think it might be more fun to find out about some of the more interesting foreign gifts people have gotten.
Now, where shall I put this?
John McCain in 2006 received an antique sword from the Republic of Georgia. Senator Russel Feingold, also in 2006, got an Iraqi chess set from President Jalal Talabani.
Russia’s minister of defense gave Sen. Ted Stevens a carved stone grape cluster in 2006. Also that year the Royal Thai Embassy paid for a legislative assistant’s “airport tax.” But the win goes to Sen. Mark Dayton, who got a 500 million-year-old scorpion fossil from China.
Gifts are one thing, but I want to know about all these fact finding missions. I fail to see what any Representative or Senator has to do with any facts that need to be found in other countries. For instance, that Jack Abramoff scandal: He flew several Congressmen over to the UK for a fact finding mission. They played golf in Scotland, and in London went to a casino to gamble. I fail to see how those activities have anything to do with serving the constituents of the states from which they hail. Of course they’re mad – this might mean that their party is over and they have to finally get back to – shocker here – doing their jobs.