# "House Republicans Vote to Gut Independent Ethics Office" **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 3, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207 "2017-01-03T04:16:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207/61 "2017-01-04T11:53:37Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > It was staged, dollars to donuts. Staged to make Trump look as though he “did something right.” From start to finish, it was coordinated (I predict we’ll learn, IF some enterprising journalist is able to put the story together). > > The public will sigh with relief that Father Trump is looking out for our interests–and the GOP Congress will be able to get on with their privatization bonanza, unencumbered by pesky public oversight. I don’t think it was staged at all. The House GOP is doing what the tea party wingnut faction of the party has been doing (or attempting to do) in various states across the country. It’s no secret that the republican ideologues are not necessarily neatly aligned with the Steve Bannon sect, which had been quietly pushed to the back of the room and left to watch as the more traditional republicans took seats at the table. This was Trump’s populism reasserting itself over the interests of the party insiders, and once again, the insiders got publicly rebuked and humiliated by someone they (like their democratic counterparts) have long considered to be a joke. But Trump is no joke. He is still winning, still flogging political insiders who are scared of their own shadow. The public takes some solace in the fact that Trump stood up for the common good this time. It gives us a false sense of security for whatever happens next, but we can confident of one thing: the House GOP just got taken down a notch and they will be only more timid in opposing whatever comes out of The Donald’s White House. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207/62 "2017-01-04T16:05:23Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Trump cracks the whip and the House instantly falls in line. There’s little doubt who will wear the pants in this setup. …"And Other Fairy Tales… :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Two notable things happened on Tuesday: Donald Trump tweeted that there are “so many things of far greater importance” than gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then House Republicans decided not to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. > > The media appears uncertain of the extent to which the former helped facilitate the latter — once again raising what will surely be a recurring question under a Trump presidency: How much credit should news reports give him? > > Since winning the election, Trump has claimed credit for saving jobs at multiple companies, including Carrier and Ford, and for raising the Consumer Confidence Index. During the campaign, he sought kudos for spending less money than his opponents, declining to mention Monica Lewinsky during a debate and complying with the Americans With Disabilities Act, among other things. > > Trump loves taking credit… > > [Cite](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/04/donald-trump-loves-taking-credit-the-media-isnt-sure-how-much-to-give/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard) Pretty soon he will start taking credit for making the sun rise. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207/63 "2017-01-04T21:03:42Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I’ll jump onto this conspiracy theory bandwagon, and add some more tinfoil fodder. Ford’s announcement that they were opening a plant in Detroit and hiring 700 workers, all while obviously fellating Trump and gushing their confidence in him, was orchestrated just as much as this phony ethics office victory. . . > > Maybe this is the whole truth. Maybe they really do feel that way and couldn’t help but shout it from the rooftops, but by God they’re talking up Trump pretty bigly and gratuitously. Why’d they bring him up at all? Why not just announce the new plant and jobs? Is it common to praise the president and make a big deal about him when opening a new factory? Did someone make a deal with Ford already for this? Was it already in the works, and they were persuaded to move up the announcement, with a little extra slobber thrown in? I’m just asking (a lot of) questions. > > This kind of pre-inauguration propaganda, if true, is kind of chilling. The republican song & dance was bad enough, but getting the public beeg from Ford before he even takes office bothers me somewhat more - like the pod people are everywhere. Of course, we always knew where big corporations were going to come (or go) down on Trump, but I guess I wasn’t ready for it pre-inauguration. We have many lessons from history on the pitiful human tendency to collaborate with authoritarian regimes. Some rush to kiss the hobnailed boot as it crushes them; some seem to enjoy the submission. Already one can see differences in the way the cable-news people talk about Trump. Some are revoltingly quick to flatter him and put the best possible spin on his antics–and I’m not talking Fox News here. It is dispiriting for those of us less enthralled by authoritarianism. But we must remember that we are many and they are…well, still many. But fewer. Calling out collaborationism when we see it can help us cope with the “pod people” phenomenon you mention. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207/64 "2017-01-06T01:49:44Z")
It seems to me that Trump is harnessing conservative business interests the way liberals have harnessed liberal business interests. Now businesses are using their clout to protest bigoted social legislation by threatening to move out of a state or curtail investment there, and they are also rewarding what they anticipate as good legislation that will benefit them by making a big deal out of changes of plans about where they’ll be hiring and producing products. I actually appreciate that the way politics is changing, corporate advocacy is now very public where before it was done primarily in backroom, secret deals. If companie want to basically say, “elect Republicans, and we’ll hire, elect Democrats and we’ll move overseas”, I have no problem with that. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207/65 "2017-01-07T00:54:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Now businesses are using their clout to protest bigoted social legislation by threatening to move out of a state or curtail investment there What do you mean, “now”? There is nothing new about this. For example, in 2013, [Wal-Mart threatened to shut down DC stores if they passed a living-wage bill](https://thinkprogress.org/walmart-threatens-to-shut-down-stores-if-dc-passes-living-wage-bill-eae454541631#.u5i0y32nf) (which I presume is the sort of thing you mean by “using their clout to protest bigoted social legislation”), and they did the same thing in Chicago seven years previously. Companies have been relocating/offshoring their operations to evade environmental and labor regulations, or threatening to do so if new regulations are passed, for decades. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-republicans-vote-to-gut-independent-ethics-office/776207.md?page=3)