do you think a lot of these senator jerks have 'something on' each other?

[mopaul]

like things they all know about each other, that they can blackmail each other with? like in skull and bones, the initiate is supposed to confess his deepest embarrassments or sexual secrets.

when daschle was hit with an anthrax terror attack, he sure seemed calm and reasonable about it. and when bush and cheney asked him not to look into 9-11, he sure was quiet about it.

i'll bet they all blackmail each other and investigate each other for weaknesses and scandals and keep it amongst themselves to get bills pushed through and money in their pockets.

a lot of shit goes on behind the scenes that we know nothing about.
and i'll bet a lot of it has to do with blackmail. i understand the mafia blackmailed hoover for years about a certain photograph of him they had in their possession. hoover the f.b.i. king, refused to acknowledge the existence of the mafia.

makes you wonder what they have on bush. but i thnks we've already heard most of it, and nobody cares too much. if you can snort up peru and empty jack daniels warehouse, and STILL be president, it almost become pointless to blackmail a man.

[demnan]

1. Oh, sure

My grandparents knew a lot of Congress critters as my grandfather's father was a Congressman and they entertained a lot in the D.C. area in the 50's before I was born.

The stories that you could tell in the whorehouses and hotel rooms of Washington, D.C. would make Larry Flynt blush.

[loftycity]

2. Yes.

That is why Minnesota has Coleman as a senator. They have dirt on each other.
Coleman is a dirtbag up to his eyeballs.
Blackmail is the name of the game.
That's why we got 9/11's, torture gate..all afraid to talk.
And that is the MO on hiring.

[DenverDem]

3. What they have on busholini II-gay lover.

Long term homosexual affair. Doesn't bother me, except for the hypocricy of him being against gay marriage, but it would destroy his theocon base of support.

[cosmicdot]

4. yes.

there's a corporate america-lobbyist price tag peeping out of the sleeve of most of them - when they are bought and sold by the same sources ... and invest in the same shameless corporations ... it makes it difficult be at odds or heads above ...

... I can imagine the hanky-panky 'office' gossip which fills the caucus rooms and/or passed to/from legislative assistants/office managers at such Hill hotspots as Bullfeathers, Hawk-n-Dove, the Dubliner, etc.

... if walls could speak ...

they know Shrubya's history ... Harken, everything ...

when reform, investigations, etc., are mere dog and pony shows ... and, nothing is done because, if it was, it would affect 90% of the Hill ... we have a problem ...

take Lieberman's initial pussyfooting around when enron broke and hit his committee ... he didn't do squat ... ineffectual psuedo-leader ... and, he's just one of many ...

even the Clinton witchhunt stopped short of removing him from office ... the Repukes got the impeachment ... they distracted from Clinton's work ... they tarnished his record ... they likely influenced the votes in 2000 ... and, one vote could have removed him from office ... but, oddly enough, the likes of Senator Arlan Specter broke from Party ranks to vote 'no' to removal ... did they plan it that way?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Blackmail and bribery are the only two explanations

that make sense to me in explaining the spinelessness of some Washington Dems.

The resident curmudgeon in my former apartment building, once an Oregon political insider, said he had noticed over the years how many Congresscritters and Senators went into office as people of moderately affluent means and came out mysteriously richer in ways that couldn't be accounted for by their salaries.

[fdr_hst_fan]

6. Harry Truman

once said. "You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook."

[shadu]

8. how disheartening

[tom_paine]

7. Yes.

n/t

[pocket]

9. yes

absolutely.

[AndyTiedye]

10. An Offer They Couldn't Refuse

Being sent anthrax is actually quite a bit worse than
finding the head of your favorite horse on your bed,
especially after not one, but two of your colleagues
have died in mysterious plane crashes recently.