Democrats vow to restore political integrity (radio address)

Rep.-elect Jerry McNerney: Democrats must "earn the public trust"
Says party will ban gifts from lobbyists, lobbyist-paid travel, corporate jet use
Will work to reduce foreign oil dependence; create renewable energy, biofuels

A California Democrat newly elected to Congress promised Saturday that his party will restore integrity and civility to the House when it assumes control in January.

"In this election, the American people clearly called for change," Rep.-elect Jerry McNerney said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "As our first responsibility in fulfilling the mandate of this critical election, House Democrats will restore integrity and civility in Washington in order to earn the public trust."

The effort to build that trust will include bans on gifts from lobbyists, lobbyist-funded travel and use of corporate jets, McNerney said.

The incoming congressman also promised "a new direction in Iraq" and said Democrats would resist any plan to deploy more U.S. troops there. "The Iraqis need to understand that the responsibility for the future of that country is theirs," he said.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/30/dems.radio.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

on their junkets (except, of course, where military maneouvres might be needed). Make THEM (oops, their staffers) file expense reports. And justify WHY they took first class flights/had actual hotel expenses exceed per diem (why didn't the codel kick the colonels out of the VIP quarters on bases?), etc.

and after he had mobilized an army of attorneys to investigate voting irregularities. This was the perfect time to challenge black-box voting, but Kerry for some reason chickened out after he had made all kinds of promises to restore integrity to voting. The new congress' actions will speak much louder than the words that come out of their mouths.

and count the votes honestly we'll never have to worry about a Republican majority again. I would like this to be the first order of business.

My hope for the second order of business is that the Dems work to replace corporate donations with donations from citizens. I'd be happy to send some money every month. They could also continue to work on getting public funding for elections--it seems to have worked out very well in Arizona.

double edged sword. It seeems every time the Dems start
"preaching" some member shows up in trouble.

There are issues best not bloviated about. If new rules
are passed or actions taken which actually show impact--
then go public-- go on all talk shows etc to illustrate
the accomplishment.

Are they going to permit Bush to Surge in Iraq.
At least as a Party they should take a stand.
Otherwise, they will appear to be repeating
the same thing they did when they voted for
this war. Giving Bush a blank check. If we
increase troops this is an unending open-ended
committment for at least 5 years. There are
some serious ethical issues here. How many
more kids must die because of a mistake????

voting, except for disabled folks. Use clear, nationally uniform paper ballots, filled in with pen, and a virtually foolproof, multi-party monitored, videotaped hand count system for tallying. We don't care how much it costs or how long it takes to count the ballots.

We want to know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that our elections are clean.

Make election day a national holiday.

Make election fraud as serious a felony as manslaughter, with stiff mandatory prison sentences that must be served in a maximum security prison.

despite some misgivings that he wasn't progressive enough. Obviously, he was a lot better than the guy he beat, Pombo, who was called one of the most corrupt members of Congress. I am so glad that he is there, and he seems to be saying the right thing about Iraq!