Back in the saddle

January 31 - I'm back in the US, and fired up. When you go to places like Kenya, get your hands dirty, and see things as they are, you can't help but be fired up. To get a glimpse of what can fire a person up, go to www.mosaicinitiative.org, and read about the most recent Kenya experience.

So, this morning, as I started to get my bearnings again, I checked in to the House proceedings while out of the country. I'm a real novice at close monitoring of Congress, so what I was most surprised at is the amount of crap that Congress spends its time on. Many of the actions were re-naming Federal buildings, and honoring sports teams and personalities (Muhammad Ali for turning 65, Boise State for an undefeated season, Florida State for National Championship, Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy for being the first pair of African American Head Coaches in the Super Bowl, Louisville Cardinals for their Orange Bowl Victory, but where's the honoring of Rutgers - they beat Louisville!). Hey, Congress - Where's the Beef?

Now to our man in Washington, Rep. Roskam, how did he do? I didn't even bother to check the roll calls on the above-mentioned motions. It's not worth my time, and for the most part shouldn't be worth Congress' time and money. But, there were three bills that are of interest: HR476, HR6, and HRes65. First to HRes65, as this is where Roskam "done good". This bill, which was passed with Roskam joining about 5 dozen Republicans, is to lower the Student Loan Interest Rates. The obvious - making education more affordable. After all, Jefferson said Democracy can only succeed when the population are educated and informed. So, congrats, Peter, you got that one right.

Now to the hypocricy; Mr. "I will represent change in Washington" Roskam continued to show an easy willingness to vote for the status quo and the interests of big business (especially the oil industry) and the influence of lobbyists. HR6 is a bill that calls for investing in the development of clean, renewable and alternative energy. 36 Republicans joined the Democrats in passing this bill, but not one of our local reps (Biggert, Roskam, Hastert - the ethanol man). Are these people serious? Haven't they yet noticed the impending energy problem? Haven't they noticed that even if fossil fuels were plentiful, the environment is suffocating. Now that Henry Waxman is finally having the opportunity to hold hearings with some teet to them about the Bush Environmental policies and records, scientists IN the government are feeling safe enough to speak out about the "cherry-picking/denial" approach the Bushies have taken (see today's NYTimes for more on this). But Roskam falls right in line with big oil and votes against finding alternatives?

The other bill mentioned (HR476) is just as troubling. This bill limits the retirement benefits for Members of Congress "convicted of any certain offenses committed that member while serving as a Member of Congress". Roskam joined EVERY REPUBLICAN in voting against this bill (that was passed by EVERY DEMOCRAT). Now, I can understand why the incumbent Republicans voted against this - many of them probably could be at risk of losing their retirement benefits. But for just about the only Rookie Republican to join them in continuing to protecting themselves from any consequences of being corrupt shows that he actually has little interest in cleaning up Washington. For most of us, if we are caught and convicted of a crime related to our work we stand to lose everything. For many, it's what makes the work force more honest. But Roskam - if he had his way on this one - would have had it so people could violate laws in Congress AND keep their benefits, creating a huge win for them, and a huge loss to the taxpayers. Thankfully, the Dems passed this one.

Someone said to me recently that by the time 2008 rolls around, all of this will be ancient history, and slick Pete will campaign as squeaky clean. I say "Let's prove them wrong". Let's keep the heat on him; let's write to him and to the papers, and talk, talk, talk about his record. It seems clear that there is very little "consciousness" to Peter's early voting trends and unless there is a dramatic change in his record, we should start gearing up now for a dramatic change in who represents us.