Get Your Fresh, Hot Lawmakers!
The call of the Washington lobbyists. Yes, despite all the promises to clean things up on Capitol Hill, lobbyists are rushing to ply incoming Democrats with wiki-wiki dollars. And the incoming lawmakers are tripping over themselves to grab handfuls while they can.
WASHINGTON — Democrats may be promising a clampdown on lobbyist freebies once they take control of Congress. But ahead of that push, party leaders are collecting lobbyists' checks, while Democratic staffers angle for jobs inside their well-appointed offices.Verizon Communications Inc. earlier this week sponsored a reception for newly elected Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. Illinois Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean was the beneficiary of a Tuesday night fund-raiser in the new Capitol Hill offices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In addition to retiring Ms. Bean's debt, Chamber Political Director Bill Miller said the reception was a chance for corporations and lobbyists who didn't back her re-election to "meet her and see what a great representative she is."
Yesterday, Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, mastermind of the Democrats' House takeover, accepted donations at Sonoma, a trendy Capitol Hill restaurant that features California cuisine to match the wine list, for his leadership committee, a type of account employed by ambitious lawmakers to make donations and curry favor with their colleagues.
Separately, Moses Mercado, the Democratic National Committee's deputy executive director, will soon be joining the Federalist Group, a lobbying group with close ties to the White House that went bipartisan about a year ago. Mr. Mercado "can help our clients deal with the new majority on Capitol Hill," says Wayne Berman, the Republican founder of the firm. Senior aides to incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also have been snatched up by lobbying shops, while Democratic lobbying firms, largely frozen out in Washington for years, are being courted by dozens of new potential clients.
Postelection fund-raising and political repositioning are hardly new in Washington. Candidates routinely use the last months of an election cycle to clear campaign debt. Lobbyists use the time to target freshmen who haven't staked out firm positions on the vast array of issues that come before Congress.
As Pete Townshend famously said: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I predict that there will be a big show made of reforms, but there will simply be new back door ways of funneling cash to lawmakers introduced. That is pretty much the way Washington works these days regardless of who is nominally in power.
Other Links to this Post
-
Blue Crab Boulevard » Honeymoon’s Over — Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 12:49 pm
By TC@LeatherPenguin, Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 1:22 pm
I wish I read this before I jacked the comment on the later posting….
By Robert, Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 1:35 pm
Congress was going to do something about corruption when the Abramoff scandal broke.
Then they found out their constituents(corporate lobbyists) didn’t want to change the system.
They’re politicians. They’re supposed to work for their constituents.
By TC@LeatherPenguin, Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 4:27 pm
“They’re politicians. They’re supposed to work for their constituents.”
Errr… what color’s the sky in your world, Robert?
I keed!
By John Ryan, Thursday, 7 December , 2006 @ 4:46 pm
well of course it will continue, at least to some degree. However I am still hoping that iy will not be the complete sellout that the 108th Congress turned out to be. One hope full note was that just before the election the “scandal” of Reid D-NV accepting 30,000 fro Abramhoff’s crew seemed to indicate that the price for buying Democrats will be within the budget of middle class Americans.