Oops

The Washington Post is reporting that "more than 30 lawmakers and several aides" are being investigated by the House Ethics Committee after a confidential committee report was left on "a publicly accessible computer network." Someone found it and sent it to the WaPo.

The 22-page "Committee on Standards Weekly Summary Report" gives brief summaries of ethics panel investigations of the conduct of 19 lawmakers and a few staff members. It also outlines the work of the new Office of Congressional Ethics, a quasi-independent body that initiates investigations and provides recommendations to the ethics committee. The document indicated that the office was reviewing the activities of 14 other lawmakers. Some were under review by both ethics bodies.

Another story details the investigation focusing on seven members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, based on their ties to "PMA, a lobbying firm founded by Paul Magliocchetti that has been under criminal investigation by the Justice Department."

There are a lot of Dems on that list, who appear to be playing a very similar game to the one the GOP's been playing with characters like Jack Abramoff.

We've got a government bought and sold by corporations. It's evident in our defense policy, it's evident in our economic strategies, it's evident in the clusterfuck known as healthcare reform, it's evident everywhere one looks. And neither of the parties give a shit, because politics is all about money now, and corporations are the ones who've got it. They might still tell themselves stories about how they need corporations' money to get elected to do the job for their constituents, but there are very few people left in Congress for whom some corporate sponsor isn't their primary constituent.

And we're on our own.