“Casino” Jack Abramoff the disgraced lobbyist who took down a few GOP congressmen with him last decade is back in the news. As someone who milked Native American tribes who owned casinos for millions of dollars; Jack Abramoff might actually have some insight into corruption that is worth listening to (sarcasm).

It is not clear how much Jack Abramoff will be contributing personally, although he does write, “I just want to say how honored I am to join Nick Penniman, Josh Silver, and the gang at United Republic in the vital effort to effect real reform in Washington. It is a privilege for me to add my insights and experience to their strong and sagacious team and I look forward to working with them to reveal to our nation the way Washington really works.”

Jack Abramoff is apparently on some sort of “reform” tour. As someone who also was part of the K Street Project with Rick Santorum, Grover Norquist and Tom Delay; I’m going to find it rather difficult to take his mea culpa seriously. The K Street Project sought to get Republicans hired at all the top lobbying firms in DC. It also attempted to bully lobbying firms to stop giving to Democrats and focus on the Republicans who were in power at the time. Basically, what Delay and his cohorts were saying was, you have to pay to play. What I also find saddening is the fact that the press hasn’t really gone after Santorum as presidential candidate on his ties to Abramoff or the K Street Project.

Throughout our modern political history, there have been many a candidate running for national office who favored setting up Washington D. C. as the proverbial straw man to be knocked down for our benefit. Yet, the pathetic outcome of this political kabuki dance is often lost on the voting public. Once these men and women of the majestic lands “outside of the beltway” enter the District of Columbia, they often end up becoming the insiders that their former selves railed against.

You’ll often hear candidates say that they should be sent to Washington to clean house and shake things up, but therein lies the problem–government does not work that way. To get anything done one must build coalitions and yes, compromise, even if it’s done begrudgingly.

The Republican House leadership may have wanted to be tea party darlings, but some of them also realized that to keep the House functioning—they’d have to seek another path, which is what Boehner and others did. And what of that freshmen class of tea partiers elected in 2010? Why, they’ve also had to be put in their places and succumb to the GOP House leadership.

It seems that their revolt is going to take longer than they or their movement anticipated. Yet, that is how it works. You have to work within the system while slowly taking it over, if they can.  By the time that revolt, if successful, is completed the antagonists will find soon enough that they too have become insiders themselves.

I guess the point I’m making is this: it’s all right to be an insider so long you hold on to your principles. Actually, I think that you need to become an insider and know your colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the institutions of government to be effective. People are often frustrated with Washington without fully understanding how government works; this is where laws are made. You can’t live without government and you can’t live without Washington D.C. However, the one issue that people outside of the beltway have with D.C. that I find relevant is their complaint about gridlock and polarization.

Also I’d like to say that Washington D.C. is not Mars. There are regular people who live and work here, despite what Mitt Romney seems to think.

From the Washington Monthly’s – Political Animal blog:

“[W]e need to send to Washington someone who has not lived in Washington, but someone who’s lived in the real streets of America…. We need to have someone outside Washington go to Washington.” [emphasis added]

First of all, like Steve Benen says, I hardly doubt that Mitt Romney lives anywhere near a “real American street.” With that said, I would like to remind people that D.C. is a real American city. It’s citizens are taxed without representation I might add. Not everyone here works for the federal government, a think tank or even a NGO—though a majority of us do. There are people here just trying to make a living like everyone else in this country.

Lastly, despite the amount of vitriol that is often directed at this city; I would like to point out that we still get a large number of tourists. This is the nation’s capital and it is still something to be revered. So stop hating on D.C. and find a new straw man or woman for that matter.

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich wants to purge the federal government of liberals it would seem.

Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested at a Fox News forum hosted by Mike Huckabee in South Carolina on Saturday that it would be a good idea to fire federal employees for being too liberal. Federal law, on the other hand, says Gingrich’s plan would be illegal.

Actually, I think this is more like Joseph McCarthy, and you see where that got him. I must say that I’m not surprised, not after Monica Goodling’s hiring practices at the Department of Justice under George W. Bush. For all their talk about shrinking government; what conservatives really want is power.

The US Supreme Court is actually hearing two important cases this week. The first is Sackett v. EPA where the question at hand is whether one has the right to judicial review of an Administrative Compliance Order issued without hearing or any proof of violation under Section 309(a) (3) of the Clean Water Act. A negative ruling against the EPA could derail the agency’s ability to enforce rules.

The second case that I found out about is Coleman v. Maryland Court of Appeals.

On January 11th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Coleman v. Maryland Court of Appeals a case likely to determine whether millions of state workers will continue to have access to the vitally important self-care medical leave provision of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

This is the injustice that started this case.

In 2007, Daniel Coleman was working as an employee of the Maryland court system. He requested medical leave under the FMLA’s self-care provision after his doctor prescribed bed rest to treat a serious medical condition. Within hours, his employer fired him. Coleman subsequently filed suit in federal court, seeking a remedy for the state’s violation of his right to take medical leave to recover from illness under the FMLA.

What is sad about the Maryland case is that it involves the government of Maryland.

I found this interesting blog post talking about the uphill battle the CFPB and it’s new director Richard Cordray (he goes by Rich on the CFPB website) will have to fight. If the CFPB is to avoid the fate of being a paper tiger it will have to learn from the mistakes of the SEC.

Cordray and his colleagues would do well to study the track record of the federal agency that has supposedly served as a financial watchdog for the past seven decades: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The CFPB is getting off the ground just as the SEC is embroiled in a dispute that reveals its cozy relationship with the big banks and its feckless approach to enforcement

In what seems to be a challenge to the much loathed Citizen’s United v. FEC ruling of the United States Supreme Court in 2010, the Montana Supreme Court has upheld a ban on corporate dollars in state elections.

“[T]he State of Montana, or more accurately its voters, clearly had a compelling interest to enact the challenged statute in 1912,” wrote Chief Justice Mike McGrath for the Court’s the majority opinion in the case of Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. State of Montana. “At that time the State of Montana and its government were operating under a mere shell of legal authority, and the real social and political power was wielded by powerful corporate managers to further their own business interests.”

It was a 5-2 ruling by the court. In my opinion nothing has changed since 1912 when it comes to corporate power and government. I don’t know what will happen with this ruling on the federal level. Will a corporation seek to take this to the US Supreme Court to uphold Citizen’s United?

I have to wonder if the Jane Jacobs who did battle with Robert Moses over the Village in the 1960′s would approve of what New York University is attempting now? If there is one thing I know about Washington Square Park is that it’s always been a park open to the people. You could even find the likes of Bob Dylan there in the early stages of his career I’ve read. Is the city of New York going to allow New York University to simply erase history?

The Downtown Independent Democrats in an email make some good points that I will quote below.

NYU has a worldwide presence in far-flung places from Shanghai to Dubai. Their argument that they must continue to build in Greenwich Village is weak. They have expanded in Brooklyn and have cited Governors Island, yet will not consider numerous locations further downtown that are 15 minutes away.

NYU did not expand in Paris because city planners did not agree to non-contextual plans. Our NYC City Planning Agency must raise the bar accordingly.

New York City for years now has stopped Wal-Mart from entering the city. I think NYU should be treated the same way. The DID email closes with an excellent summation.

Major changes from residential to commercial zoning, high-scale development with square footage the size of the Empire State Building, removing NYU long agreed upon zoning stipulations, acquiring public green spaces, and devastating the neighborhood’s character and balance are not in the public interest.

So Rick Perry is in good company it seems.

Ten of the 32 members of the Texas delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives also collect pensions from one of the public retirement systems in Texas, according to federal financial disclosure forms. Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison takes one, too.

I think a representative from Public Citizen’s Texas office said it best.

Smith said the principles of pensions are to ensure people have enough to live on when they cannot work anymore, but the law allows some people — like members of Congress — to collect state retirement money while still being paid “fat congressional salaries.”

I agree because when I think of a pension it is usually for someone who has retired for the most part. Sure, there are retirees who take on part-time jobs or what have you, but they’re not like Rick Perry and the the Texas congressional delegation.

I have in my hand a list of….well, I won’t go all McCarthy here, but the United States House of Representatives has been very naughty.

In total we found more than 800 IP-addresses assigned to the U.S. House of Representatives from where content has been shared on BitTorrent. After a closer inspection it quickly became clear the House isn’t just using it for legitimate downloads either, quite the opposite.

As the website Torrent Freak says “they pirate a lot.” This leads me to wonder whether the RIAA or the MPAA will attempt to sue the House.

What strikes me is how brazen some of the people who work on Capitol Hill can be in downloading stuff on work time. Check out this item below tracked at the website Youhavedownloaded.

It’s pretty ridiculous to me that you have people in Congress that will advocate for the building of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, even after the Defense Secretary at the time (Gates) wanted to do away with it, but they’ll gut LILHEAP.

Then conservatives have the audacity to frown on Citgo giving subsidized heating oil to low income people in this country through Citizen’s Energy. The issue here is that conservatives subscribe to this fairytale that people are poor because they choose to be. They have this Manichean worldview that leaves them with no room for a grey area. It’s apparent in there foreign policy and even in their domestic policy. In this age of Wall Street failing the American people, there are a lot of people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. What if one of these families desperately needs the heating oil subsidy that LILHEAP provides? Are we al going to have to depend on Joe Kennedy and his nonprofit to help us?