Why do Congressional websites exist? They just seem to serve as a final resting place for old press releases and cheesy, toothy photos. On the issues I really want to hear a Rep’s opinion on, they’re strangely silent.

For example, Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Republican from California’s 50th, today admitted taking bribes for attempting to influence DoD, plead guilty, and resigned from the House. Quite a day, but on his Web site it’s still blissflully 18 Nov., where there are podiums to stand behind and deals to be announced.

Coincidentally, on that very day in November, the House’s newest member, Jean Schmidt (Republican, OH-2), made a legendary ass of herself, then retracted her remarks, then apologized, and was subsequently lampooned on SNL. Schmidt’s site blithely ignores all this and pretends it’s still the 17th.

Of course there was the Thanksgiving holiday in there, but it’s Monday, and everybody should be back to work — including the investigators at the Justice Department who are investigating the ever-widening Abramoff scandal. The investigation has touched several lawmakers, and may get many more, but for the moment Rep. Bob Ney (Republican — surprise, surprise — from OH-18) is the most visible, identified as “Representative #1” in recent court plea documents.

Naturally, Ney’s site makes no mention of the Congressman’s growing legal troubles, preferring to focus instead (as of this writing) upon “Relief for [the] Domestic Pipe Industry.”

On November 18th, of course.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2005 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Law & Politics.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.