MM&N Commentary Six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election, the first midterm election of President Bill Clinton's Administration, Republicans introduced the Contract for America. It was signed by all but two of the Republican members of the House, and all of the Party's non-incumbent Republican Congressional candidates, and helped assure Republican control during the 104th congress. While parts of the contract were enacted, those parts that were not enacted have now come back to haunt all except the most irony-deficient. Here are the opening paragraphs of the contract, which makes me think that its promotors Gingrich and DeLay have the comedy stylings of Abbott and Costello: As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print. This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family. Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves. On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government: FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress; And so on. After the election, Republicans quietly buried such nonsense as a twelve year term limit on members of Congress. And they made sure that all laws that apply to the rest of the country wouldn't apply to them. We see this in the Foley scandal specifically and in the observance of civil rights, labor, and workplace laws in general. The Republicans have set up a compliance system that pales in comparison to those that they require of businesses. The plantation that is the House and Senate and the White Man's House has given no encouragement in bringing the rules of Congress in line with those in which average folks and small business men have to comply. This scandal doesn't merely expose the moral failure of a hypocritical Republican pervert. It also shines a bright light at our system of laws in high places and the Republican's culture of corruption-- for which they will pay a price.