More on the sham-form vote

John Sweeney can't hide from yet another vote that shows the people in this district that his priorities are not the ones we have. House Republicans are giving us more of the business as usual and selling it as reform. Sweeney and his party pee on our leg and then tell us it is raining when they write and vote for bills like the one passed last week. Today's Times Union concludes:

Yet here's House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, insisting that the result will be "a Congress that is more responsible and more accountable to the people it represents."

Where do these politicians go, and whom do they pay, to learn how to say such things with straight faces?

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Monroe County, is too kind when she calls the House lobbying reform bill a sham.

Now, it's up to congressional negotiators to reconcile the differences between the bad Senate bill and the worse House bill. What a depressing exercise in -- it's hard to even say the word here -- democracy. It was only a few months ago that members of the House and Senate alike promising genuine reform in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal.

It's well worth noting, finally, how the Capital Region's representatives voted. Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island, opposed the bill. But Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, was in favor of it.

Talk about a campaign issue come the November elections.

The Gillibrand Ethics IOU and her updated Sunshine Report are available online here.