So what has the Abramoff scandal taught the leadership in Congress? According to this – nothing:

Representative John A. Boehner won the job of House majority leader amid a post-Abramoff clamor for an overhaul of lobbying and ethics rules. But nearly six months later, the changes are still tied up in Congress.

And far from trying to put the brakes on lobbyists and the money they channel into Republican coffers, Mr. Boehner, who has portrayed his ties to Washington lobbyists as something to be proud of, has stepped on the gas.

He has been holding fund-raisers at lobbyists’ offices, flying to political events on corporate planes and staying at a golf resort with a business group that has a direct stake in issues before Congress.

Tapping a rich vein of longstanding relationships with lobbyists and their corporate clients, Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has raised campaign contributions at a rate of about $10,000 a day since February, surpassing the pace set by former Representative Tom DeLay after he became majority leader in 2002, a review of federal filings shows.

His fund-raising pace is roughly twice what it was before he became majority leader in February; in April his two federal committees took in $334,500 from political action committees, a monthly take that Mr. DeLay did not match for more than two years after the elections in 2002.

Mr. Boehner’s biggest donors include the political action committees of lobbying firms, drug and cigarette makers, banks, health insurers, oil companies and military contractors. Seven American Indian tribes with casinos have contributed $32,000.

Yup that is Tobacco John. He is in bed with the lobbyists and to make matters even worse, he is who the Republicans picked to lead them after people started going down because of Abramoff. This shows you that the Republican Party has no concern for corruption nor preserving the integrity of our democracy. Everything is up for sale in their eyes and that includes their powers in office.

Boehner is no exception to this. Back in February, he appeared on Meet the Press and defended his accepting money from the Chippewa tribe, one of the tribes represented by Abramoff. His defense was simple – there is nothing wrong with accepting donations from someone he represents. I did this post in fact showing he does not actually represent the Chippewa tribe. Actually in this entire district, there is only 0.2% Indian population, of which I am part of. At the same time, Boehner was refusing to talk to seniors in his district about the problems with the new Medicare program. When people called his office, they would actually get nasty with them, because they thought everything was “working great”. That shows you how corrupt and ready to lie Boehner and his staff are. He is a disgrace to this district, to the House and to the United States of America.

Luckily we do have someone running against Boehner. We actually have a former Republican, who got tired of the corruption and decided to switch parties now running against Boehner. I will be talking with this man, Mort Meier later on in the week, at our monthly party meeting. I will post more information regarding him after that and the plans to take on Tobacco John, head of the corruption party.