About a Dozen Corrupt Lawmakers Too Late

Via Yahoo News, we get some news in the better late than never category. I can't believe the jackals and weasels in the halls of power actually decided that some of the laws that apply to the plebes they represent should apply to them too...and the fact that John Kerry is the author of such a fine amendment is enough to make me go outside to check and see if the sky is still blue. Any regular Joe caught embezzling, stealing, or committing similar crimes in violation of the trust placed in him by his employer would definitely lose his pension and benefits in addition to being sent to jail. Losing pensions is a step in the right direction, but I think anyone in Congress convicted of these kinds of offenses should have their sentences doubled. They hold great power and are entrusted with much, so much more should be expected of them.

"Members of Congress convicted of serious crimes would lose their taxpayer-paid pensions, sometimes totaling more than $100,000 a year, under a measure unanimously approved by the Senate Friday. The 87-0 vote to deprive lawbreaking lawmakers of their retirement benefits was part of a comprehensive ethics and lobbying bill that the Senate has taken up as its first piece of legislation in the new Democratic-controlled Congress.

"There's something that really grates in the notion that you can put the public's trust and the public's business up for sale and then walk away and have the people that you betrayed turn around and pay for you to be able to have a fat pension," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., author of the amendment. Currently, a lawmaker can lose his or her pension only if convicted of crimes such as treason or espionage. The Kerry provision would extend that to cases of bribery, conspiracy to defraud the United States and perjury."