Look Who’s Hitched! The secret lives of Washington’s power couples (A MUST READ!)

[KoKo]

Look Who’s Hitched! The secret lives of Washington’s power couples
By T. A. Frank


Therefore, in the interests of getting things moving, this piece is going to wind down by offering some new rules for this town. Forget general exhortations about guidelines or disclosure. Instead, how about we try something tougher and get a little bit specific? Some suggestions, then, on a new approach to power couple ethics in Washington:

1. If you’re married to an elected official, forget about lobbying. We’ll make a law against that. And if you’re married to a lobbyist, forget about being an elected official. We’ll outlaw that, too. “Wait,” you ask, “if I’m a congresswoman and I fall in love with a lobbyist and marry him, does that mean that either he quits lobbying or I quit Congress?” Yes. And spare us the moaning about how that means one of you can’t work. There’s a vast, wealthy metro area out there. Go open a Starbucks.
2. Many government officials, including any federal appointees requiring Senate confirmation, must submit public financial disclosure forms. Amend this rule to include public disclosure of the profession of one’s spouse. Expand the disclosure requirements to include all congressional staffers.
3. Journalists love to put “full disclosure” in parenthetical statements, but, compared to federal appointees, we disclose barely a thing, and only when it suits us. Let newspapers and other journalistic media maintain disclosure Web sites where employees list potential conflicts of interest, including professional affiliations of spouses.
4. Let us know if your husband is the author of the Surge.

Does this solve the problem? Not entirely. Is it fair? Not really. Girlfriends and boyfriends and lovers of various sorts get a free pass. (So do partners in same-sex unions—although, if lawmakers won’t recognize them, then maybe they deserve the break.) Plenty of conflicts of interest and loopholes would remain. But that’s the way law works. It’s never entirely effective and never entirely fair. All it can do is improve on what we have.

Again, none of this is to suggest that Washington is awash in power couple misdeeds. Quite the contrary: power couples are a thing of joy. (Okay, so maybe careerist Washington duos don’t cheer you per se, but remember that they exist because women have made belated gains in a notably atavistic city.) They do, however, form a web of influence, and influence, if we’ve learned anything over the centuries, bears watching. So, yes, Washingtonians, enjoy your coziness, but be aware that soon the tax for such luxuries must be a small sliver of your privacy, payable in disclosure of your significant other. You may fear what those outside of Washington will say when they find out. But don’t underestimate them so. Remember, they have working spouses, too.

BTW...I reposted this LINK many times....and it ends up DEAD LINK...Just Google the article for the read. Is Dept. of Homeland Security NOW IN CHARGE OF OUR LINKS?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0705.frank.html

[tularetom]

1. I read it! It made me want to vomit

No wonder you can't believe a fuckin thing you read that comes from Washington. And if you carry it beyond the romantic entanglements to the friendships, neighbors, etc., everybody in DC knows everybody else or so it would seem. They have good reason to fear what we "outsiders" might say, at least the 10% of us that are actually aware of WTF is going on. I suspect there'd be a more energetic push for gun control if they knew how the public felt about them.

[Captain Hilts]

2. And they'll allllllll be patting each other on the back at the WHPress Correspondents' dins tomorrow

[bobthedrummer]

3. Nepotism, political patronage, dynastic intermarriage-all BFEE

take the "war czar" designee General Lute-his wife Jane Hull Lute is UN Asst. Sect. for UN Peacekeeping missions-but it's hard to beat power copuples like Liz Cheney and Philip Perry or the Ledeens, Wurmsers, etc.

Kick.