Rep. Bachus Calls For Hearings On Insider Trading–What Say You, Conservative Media?

There’s so much going on these days. The Occupy movement, a man arrested for attempting to assassinate our president, the never-ending drama behind the GOP primary, and–as always–we have to fight the corrupt mainstream media.

There are so many dragons to slay with only so many hours in a day, and no one knows better than a political blogger that it’s impossible to go to bed feeling as though you’ve covered everything that deserved covering.

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But we need conservative leadership on this one; your voice, your passion, your reasoned arguments and your moral authority:

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) announced Thursday that his panel would be considering legislation to prohibit lawmakers from investing based on private information.The chairman announced the Dec. 6 hearing one day after ranking member Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), sent a letter to Bachus, calling on the committee to consider such legislation and eventually pass it. The announcement also comes after Bachus has come under scrutiny for allegations that he profited on investments made based on private information.

“Existing law clearly prohibits insider trading by members of Congress. However, the American public deserves for there to be no question or equivocation concerning members of Congress or any citizen being exempted from laws prohibiting insider trading,” Bachus said in a statement.Frank told Bachus in his letter that he had “neglected” similar legislation when he was chairman of the committee, but that recent attention to the matter meant the bill should be considered and passed.

The panel will consider a bill, introduced by Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.), which would prohibit members and White House employees from investing based on private information, or from passing that information along to others for investment purposes.

As you know already, it is currently legal for members of Congress to enrich themselves with insider information to which the rest of us aren’t privy. When corporate executives do this they go to jail, and should. Insider trading breeds corruption and can create conflicts of interest whereby as those charged with the public trust manipulate markets and, yes, legislation to enrich their own personal portfolios.

This is not a partisan issue. It is a corruption issue. The MSM (at least those bothering to cover this story) might be hitting our side a little harder than the other. But insider trading in a game where there are winners and losers in the world of financial and land speculation is something of which both parties are guilty. Simply put, we cannot have our public servants loop-holing themselves outside the laws to which they hold us, and we certainly cannot allow a Congressional seat in either House to be a path towards anything other than doing what’s best for the country.

If we can put an end to this practice, to the promise of an ignoble road to wealth if you win a Congressional seat, maybe we can attract more citizens who only wish to serve their country, and weed out those who only come to serve themselves. As Scott Johnson of Powerline argues, they’re not “all” bad. Most might even be good.

But one is too many … and there’s more than one. Moreover, the system stinks.

If we can all speak up now, especially our leading voices at sites such as National Review, Daily Caller, Red State, TownHall, Hot Air, and the Weekly Standard, we have a real chance to achieve the kind of real reform that doesn’t come along very often.