Transparent? No! Bachmann Hypocrisy, Republicans Talk, a Lot, but Don't Walk the Walk

The English have an excellent saying, "Begin as you mean to go on.", arguing that one does things a certain way, (dare I say, the RIGHT way?) from the very beginning.

So,  NOW is the correct time to call the Republicans on how many ways they are failing to live up to their much-touted promises.

Let us begin with Bachmann, and her closed door session with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, along with the changing explanations, each one fishier than the last.  I refer Penigma readers to this link, to the Daily Kos:.Bachmann's office denies that Justice Scalia met with the Tea Party Caucus.

Bachmann's office is claiming that the "Closed Door Seminar" today was NOT for the Tea Party Caucus but rather, it was for ALL members of Congress - all 535 members of Congress.


Bachmann's office gave me THREE different silly reasons why the Seminar was "Closed" and admitted she was planning on TWO Closed Door Seminars per month all on the Tax Payer Dime.


Call Michele Bachmann and demand she hold her Closed Door Seminars on her OWN dime and NOT in the Capitol where the Tax Payer picks up the heating, lighting &coffee tab. Bachmann: DC Phone: 202-225-2331

Here is an outline of my call with Bachmann's office today from keepemhonest:

keep em honest continues his exchange with Bachmann's office:

ME: Is Justice Scalia a member of the Tea Party Caucus?REC: No.ME: Is Justice Scalia helping the Tea Party Caucus decide on policy today? REC: No, it is a seminar.

keepemhonest continues;

ME: Then, why is it closed to the public. I thought the only time a Caucus was "closed" was when the members were deciding on "policy." REC: Justice Scalia is not speaking to the Tea Party Caucus. Justice Scalia is speaking to all members of Congress. ME: Then why is it "closed" to the public.REC: For security reasons. ME: Where is the meeting being held?  REC: In the Capitol building  ME: Did they close the Capitol Building to the public today? REC: No. ME: Then Scalia's Seminar is not closed due to security reasons at all. Otherwise they would have cleared the Capitol. REC: It is "closed" because it is a Congressional Constitutional Seminar. ME: The only "Closed Door" Seminars I have attended are only "Closed" because the group hosting the event wants to make sure they get paid - so they can pay the Seminar Speaker. Since you are telling me Scalia is not getting paid there is no reason to "close" this seminar off from the public. REC: It is closed because there was not enough room to handle the press. ME: You told me that the Seminar was open to all 535 members of Congress. CNN is reporting that only 40 people showed up. That means there is PLENTY of empty seats for the press. So, who made the decision to have a "Closed Door" Seminar and why was that decision made. REC: Members of Congress have 'closed door' meetings all the time. ME: Is this a "meeting" or a "seminar." REC: It is a Constitutional Seminar. ME: Well, I understand 'closed door' meetings when members of Congress are discussing policy to put forth. But not for mere "seminars." Unless Scalia is telling the Tea Party Caucus what policy to set forward there is no reason the "seminar" should be "closed." Now, who made the decision to close the seminar and why?REC: I don't know, I will have to have someone get back to you. ME: CNN is reporting that Michelle Bachmann is planning on hosting 2 Seminars a month. Are all the seminars going to be "Closed Door."  REC: ah ... yes.  ME: Well, that is a problem. Ya see, Michelle Bachmann promised she would write laws that would create jobs -- instead she will be hosting 2 seminars per month wining and dining speakers behind "closed doors' on Company time. Meaning, she is NOT doing the job she is paid to do -- instead she is getting paid, by the Tax Payer to host little seminar parties. That's not good. If Michelle Bachmann wants to host 2 Closed Door Seminars per month then she needs to do that on "her dime" and NOT on the Tax Payer Dime. We pay her to work from at least 9-5 every day. We pay her staff over $600,000.00 per quarter and that does not include the Tax Payer cost of the staff's healthcare, parking, & other perks and it does not include Bachmann's salary or her health benefits & other perks.We do not expect her to have "Closed Door" Seminars unless policy is being made.I promise you that if Michele Bachmann continues to waste Tax Payer money and time on hosting 2 Closed Door Seminars per month she will catch heat in the media and on blogs. She needs to live up to her own campaign promises of Transparency and job creation.REC: I will give her your message.ME: Thank you.

keepemhonest concludes: Separation of Powers ... not today - not between Justice Scalia and the Tea Party Caucus. Call Michele Bachmann and demand she hold her Closed Door Seminars on her OWN dime and NOT in the Capitol where the Tax Payer picks up the heating, lighting & coffee tab.

Let me point out here that Bachmann's walk directly contradicts the conservative's squawk over the closed door meetings on policy that were held relating to the writing of the Health Care Reform legislation. Let me also point out that Bachmann has the worst attendance record in Congress of anyone from the Minnesota delegation, either House or Senate. Let me point out that she has a big staff for PR, and not for legislation research, and that she has not produced ANY legislation proposals that are sufficiently competent to make it out of committee. Let me point out that Bachmann for all her talk of fiscal accountability has the highest expenditures for her staff and office expenses ---and the very least to show for it by any valid measurement, of any member of Congress from Minnesota (she doesn't fare well by comparison to other members of Congress either). So much for her talk not matching her walk. This from a woman who routinely mouths disinformation propaganda, a woman who cannot pass a fact check for factual accuracy even once.

Let me point out that the Congress under Speaker John Boehner and the Republican majority have not upheld their promises about open rules, or transparency, or perhaps most important, giving priority to job legislation.  They have not kept their word about the national debt, with the extension of tax cuts for the very wealthy, or with their promises about the national debt with their false representations about jobs and budget issues in the health care reform repeal legislation which is neither budget busting or job killing, nor is it the preference of a majority of Americans, as demonstrated by poll after poll.  If  weeper in chief Boohoo Boehner is so damn sincere about cutting waste, let us see him move to cut the manufacture of those duplicate engines for airplanes that the military does not want, but can't get shut down because it is hideously wasteful pork for Boehner's own home district.  Fiscal responsibility, like charity, should begin at home.  Transparency was so quickly sacrificed by the conservatives, tea partiers and republicans that it is a joke.....a very very BAD joke.

I am now waiting to see those conservative, tea partying, republican voters hold the people they elected responsible.  Crickets...............lots and lots and lots of crickets.............and embarrassed silence while they make war on the middle and lower class who make up the majority of this country.  That would be the people who are growing consistently poorer while the right loots this country for the privileged few who pay them off.