Suckered

Now that “reform” teabaggers have put Boehner in charge, look what happens:

On the surface, presumptive House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, makes a convincing case that change is coming to Washington.
Boehner has invited reform-minded freshmen to join his majority transition team, and he has drawn up an impressive laundry list of pending House reforms: Earmarks are out; transparency is in; bills will be crafted in the open and publicly posted well before votes. As Boehner put it in a YouTube video touting the GOP’s plans, “Now more than ever, citizens want to participate in government and hold their leaders accountable.”

But behind closed doors, Boehner’s agenda clashes head-on with the populist rhetoric of many newly elected Republican House members. Even as they outline institutional reforms, GOP leaders are gearing up to kill the fledgling Office of Congressional Ethics, which helps police ethics complaints. They are handpicking top aides, many of them old K Street hands, to staff key committees and Capitol Hill offices. Some tea party activists grouse that lobbyists and insiders are trying to “co-opt” the GOP freshmen.