American Politics Journal -- News You Won't See on TV, Part Three

American Politics Journal

News You Won't See on TV, Part Three
Dan Burton Scalps Taxpayers with "Fact-Finding" Junket
By Tamara Baker

August 11, 2001 -- SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA (APJP) -- Now that the Gary Condit FauxGate has died quietly (and do you notice that not a single media outlet has come forward to apologize to the man for making him Media Suspect Number One, even as the DC police didn't get around until last week to checking out the nearly two-dozen registered sex offenders that lived near Ms. Levy?), there's a sudden scandal vacuum in our nation's tabloid-network media, where most Americans are force-fed what passes for news in this country.

This isn't because there are aren't any scandals out there to report -- the near-constant stream of lies mouthed by The Authorities concerning the death of Lori Klausutis refutes that -- but simply because there isn't any way that the GOPMedia can link them to a Democrat (for instance, it's rather difficult to try to blame Karl Rove's current troubles on anyone but himself).

The latest in the parade of Republican scandals that will never make the nightly news is the story of Dan Burton's sudden, taxpayer-financed interest in the workings of the German postal system. Get a load:

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, arranged for an unusual government-paid trip to Frankfurt and Bonn this week to investigate the German postal system. He is also visiting his wife, who is receiving medical care in Frankfurt, according to the congressman's aides.
While lawmakers frequently travel abroad during congressional recesses, it is rare for a single member to conduct an official fact-finding tour abroad, as Burton is doing. Usually members travel in larger groups and bring aides along in tours that examine a specific issue or focus on forging ties with foreign leaders.
In Burton's case, congressional sources said, the State Department information sessions for the congressman were put together late last week, and his initial briefing in Frankfurt on Tuesday included no written agenda or formal briefing papers. One source said preparations for these briefings were made with the understanding that they were "only a decoy and that the actual purpose of the trip was for the congressman to visit his wife."

The big irony, of course, is that Burton chairs the House Government Reform Committee, whose alleged mission is to ferret out Government waste of exactly this sort.

Now, it's a bummer that Dan's spouse-of-record (as opposed to the scores of GFs he's had in his public-service tenure) is sick with cancer. Cancer isn't something I'd wish on anybody.

But Dan Burton has many wealthy friends across the nation. Most of his donations come from outside of Indiana, and his campaign coffers are so full, and his opponents so pitiful, that he's been known to spend his TV ad money on boosterish Indiana University basketball commercials. Surely he could have easily paid for this himself. Then again, Republicans don't get to be rich unless they can do it using Other People's Money: Just look at the financial escapades of George W. Bush's backers, or of the way Bush Family patron Peter Munk, of Barrick Goldstrike and Buly Massacre fame, used other countries' gold reserves to build himself a pretty pile.

Contrast this sort of tacky and cruel avarice with the behavior of another wealthy man, Democratic Senator John Edwards, who was recently profiled in the Washington Post.

Here's a self-made man who never forgot where he came from, and strives always to use his considerable gifts for good. If Al Gore had picked him for Veep, he would have won by a bigger margin than 700,000 votes last November. Let's hope that Al rectifies that mistake in 2004.