Wow, I agree with David Broder

The Dean of Punditry.

When it comes to blatant hypocrisy, nothing beats the Senate record on the just-passed bankruptcy bill.

This "reform," which parades as an effort to stop folks from spending lavishly and then stiffing creditors by filing for bankruptcy protection, is a perfect illustration of how the political money system tilts the law against average Americans.

The simple fact that for eight straight years it has gained a place on a crowded congressional calendar is testimony to the impact of the millions of dollars that banks and credit card companies have spent on lobbyists and campaign contributions.

What happened -- and didn't happen -- during two weeks of Senate debate demonstrates just how the powerful exert their influence. It's all too typical of what takes place now in Washington with most issues.

Few policy battles, Social Security being a current example, draw enough public and press interest for the legislators to feel real scrutiny. Most are in a netherworld where media coverage is cursory and interest groups' pressure determines the outcome. That's how bankruptcy reform made it through the Senate and why it will soon pass the House and be signed into law by President Bush.

The recent decade's rise in the number of bankruptcy cases has been dramatic, and it is not difficult to find cases of abuse. But most bankruptcy petitions are filed by people with real financial problems, often the result of family illness, divorce or loss of jobs. This bill will make it harder for everyone -- chiselers and innocent victims alike -- to get a clean start without the overhang of mounting interest payments on unpaid credit cards and other debt.

For two weeks the Senate sponsors shot down virtually every attempt to separate the sheep from the goats and carve out protections for the average family trapped by circumstances. The dry language of the Congressional Record recites a series of one-sided votes rejecting amendments "to protect service members and veterans . . . to exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems . . . to preserve existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members . . . to exempt debtors if their problems were caused by identity theft." Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the creditors' pursuit of those folks.

What Broder only barely touches upon is the fact that since the poor and the unlucky have no natural political constituency not only do legislatures pay no attention to them, neither does the fatcat corporate third-estate. No, the major networks and cable news outfits spent all their time entertaining those poor folks with Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson while Congress slashed their throats on behalf of big money.

"Of the people, by the people, for the people" MY ASS!

Every individual, Republican OR Democrat who voted for this excreble piece of garbage against the interest of the citizenry should be hounded from office and never allowed to run from their shame.