Thunder on K Street

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz teaming up to push for lobbying reform? Bizarre -- and encouraging.

The Senate and the House currently impose respective two- and one-year bans on members lobbying Congress after they leave, which isn't much better than no restriction at all. And they can lobby the White House immediately. This year alone, more than a dozen former members joined lobbying firms.

Ocasio-Cortez is among the most liberal Democrats in the House; Cruz is among the Senate's most conservative Republicans. They don't agree on much, but they discovered during a recent Twitter exchange that they agree former members of Congress should be banned for life from lobbying.

"If we can agree on a bill with no partisan snuck-in clauses, no poison pills, etc. -- just a straight, clean ban on members of Congress becoming paid lobbyists," wrote Ocasio-Cortez, "then I'll co-lead the bill with you."

Cruz responded: "You're on." If this is for real, it could mean Congress finally stops working for special interests represented by former colleagues and starts working for the people.


Hen in the Fox House

Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand had the guts to appear at a Fox News town hall meeting this week, and expressed some things that needed to be said about the network's slanted coverage. Democrats have debated about how to handle invitations from Fox -- which long ago graduated from the mere bias typical of most cable news to full-service shilling for the Republican Party.

Some say appearing on the network gives it credibility it doesn't deserve; others point out that going on could help open the eyes of its long-deceived viewers. Gillibrand took the latter position, informing Fox viewers that a long segment they'd earlier watched was a "false narrative" that conflated the sincere debate over abortion with a misleading and irrelevant discussion of infanticide — which is defined as murder in every jurisdiction, with no one suggesting it shouldn't be.

Host Chris Wallace deemed Gillibrand's attack on his network as not "polite." Considering the way Fox News' attack dogs go after Democrats when they're not present to defend themselves, that's progress. — The St. Louis Post-Dispatch