[GOP Corruption]

Corruption Ahoy.

The WaPo has a story out I find remarkable. Not because it documents corruption among the House GOP (it does), or because the mode of corruption is particularly egregious (it's not), or because of who it will benefit (big business) or who will get screwed (the sick, elderly, and poor). It's mainly remarkable because they're reporting it at all:

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade...

That change was made in mid-December during private negotiations involving House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the staffs of those committees as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House and Senate Democrats were excluded from the meeting.

Republicans have been doing business like this in Washington for the better part of five years. But thanks to Jack and Tom and Duke, it's finally become news.