The continuing corruption scandal involving Jack Abramoff and his Republican "K Street Project" (see this story by Anne E. Kornblut in the New York Times) has toppled or threatens to topple various Republican members of Congress, such as Randy Cunningham, Robert Ney and Tom DeLay. It is an incredible story of greed and power-lust, one that illustrates the worst fears of special interest groups that control so much wealth and power that they can essentially buy legislation. As the Times story notes, the goal of Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm established by DeLay's close personal friend and former chief of staff Edwin Buckham, was "for Republican lobbyists to harness the power of their corporate cleints to help keep the party in power for years to come." Id. DeLay's rise in power meant money for the firm--$8.8 million dollars in 2004. Delay was known to "respond[] more quickly to calls from Alexander Strategy than any other firm." Id.
Abramoff has now pled guilty to three felong counts and become the star witness against others involved. As Newt Gingrich told a Rotary Club in Washington, "You can't have a corrupt lobbyist unless you have a corrupt member (of Congress) or a corrup staff. This was a team effort." The News-Gazette, Jan 8, 2006, at B1.
Yesterday's New York Times ran a lengthy feature article by Todd Purdum, Go Ahead, Try to Stop K Street, that compared power-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's operation to the rampant influence peddling in Ulysses S. Grant's 1870s administration. Back then, he notes, Republican elders claimed that Grant had "used the public service of the government as a machinery of corruption and personal influence...and shown himself deplorably unequal to the task imposed on him by the necessities of the country." Id. The report goes on to show how the K Street Project has increased Republicans' ability to garner huge sums from corporations. Since 1999, spending by lobbyists has increased 46%, to more than $2 billions annually, while the number of reigstered lobbyists (there are lots that are not registered) has doubled from 14, 690 in 1999 to 32,890 in 2005. Id. The revolving door has worsened as well.
"Since 1998, ... more than 2,200 former federal employees had registered as federal lobbyists, as had nearly 275 former White House aides and nearly 250 former members of Congress." Id.
The ethical rules are particularly conducive to the kind of scandal that has broken out. Former members of Congress have floor privileges, and exercise them to buttonhole their old friends to try to get them to vote for their clients' interests. One can bet that those interests do not coincide with the greatest public good. The Times article goes on to note:
"Entrenched industries--and extrenched incumbents of both parties--can be expected to resist change that would threaten the way they know how to do business."
The best solution is to increase transparency around the money and the power. Congress should enact legislation that would require every member to publicly disclose every contact (phone or in person or by email) with lobbyists. Lobbyists should likewise have to post their contacts with any member of the government on a single government-run site that is easily available for all Americans and easily searchable by name of the lobbyists, topic of the meeting, and name or title of the person lobbied. Congress must act to make influence peddling harder to do and more damaging for members of Congress when they are found out.
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