Congress' Kelo vs. New London Hypocrisy

Time for me to get back to my Fact Attack. The Judge Alito nomination made me think about something I hadn't previously. Last year everyone was stunned by the Supreme Court's ruling on Kelo vs. New London , as we should be. Authorizing the demolition of a person's home in order to improve a town's tax pool is egregious, and it's quickly becoming a national problem. Anyone's home or business is a target for the next Big Box retailer who finds the location as a "prime spot". Every congressman jumped right the opportunity to send out a press release, expressing their outrage. And why not? Eminent Domain is as popular an issue as child abuse - well almost. It's a perfect example of Big Bad Government and Big Bad Business trying to stick it to the little man. The problem some congressmen have is that they ARE Big Bad Government, and they are financially connected to Big Bad Business in their dance of joy on private citizens. Time to play connect the dots with campaign contributions again. Congress has become so crazy with fundraising, that they don't care much where the money comes from, that is, until the poop hits the fan. And in Kelo, it shows a blatant hypocrisy in Washington. How can a congressman show outrage when they are getting 1, 3,5 or $10,000 from WalMart, Home Depot, Costco and other companies? Sure , the root problem are the local governments and their obsession with property tax revenue. However, if Big Box can pay off Congress, certainly taking care of a few city council members is easy. The trouble for Congress is that those payoffs always stay on FEC records - a true hypocrite-ometer. By now you know what I'm about to say. Jim Clyburn is a hypocrite. His requisite press release came out immediately, but he fails to mention how much money he's been taking from WalMart for about 5 years now. Yes, WalMart, the most anti-union corporation in the world, gives money to Jim Clyburn, the man who gets six figures every election cycle from every union under the Sun. When you look at it, it doesn't seem like the unions are getting their money's worth from him, does it? Like the Abramoff affair, maybe our congressmen should give back the money to Big Box as a goodwill gesture for misleading America - but don't count on it. Sure, both parties would suffer, but it would be a stern lesson for Congress to learn. Until we show that we aren't stupid, they will always assume we are.