Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....

What is it with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives?  Weren't they paying attention last November?  Even a blind man could see that the people were fed up with business as usual in Washington.  The supposed joke of a candidate, Bernie Sanders, turned out to be the guy that set the tone for the entire election.  He turned things upside down, calling out those who were shills for special interests, and promised to represent the people for a change.  And Donald Trump did much the same, in his own way, and in the process earned the votes of many who were fed up with the status quo.   "Drain the swamp" they said.

The big catch phrase has been "transparency", which means to put everything out in the open for all to see.  No secrets, no back room deals, just put the truth out there, period.  And if you're proud of what you've done, or at least not ashamed of it, why not?

So less than two months after the election, what do the sitting Republican House of Representatives members do in a closed door caucus / meeting on their last day before the next Congress is sworn at in?  They voted to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of its independence and place it under the control of the House Committee on Ethics.

In other words, the members of the House will now be responsible for looking into charges of unethical practices by members of the House.  Are you kidding me?  That idea was proven to be a sham years ago, which is why the INDEPENDENT Office of Congressional Ethics was set up in the first place!  The fox once again has the keys to the hen house!

(In fairness, if the Democrats should again become the majority party in a future election, I don't want them to have this power, either.)

The soon to be* renamed and declawed "Office of Congressional Complaint Review" cannot review any misconduct that took place before 2011, cannot release any of its findings to the public, or alert law enforcement to any criminal activity uncovered, without the permission of their House committee overseers. ('Cause, you know, you've gotta give the crooks a head start so they can wipe off their prints and clean up the blood.)

Transparency my ass!  They've tricked us again.

S

* This is all contingent on the full House and Senate agreeing.  As they are both Republican controlled, and if there is no public outcry in the meantime, expect that to happen soon.