Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., former Clinton Administration official and current producer of
The West Wing, has a great editorial about lobbying, and the difference between Democrats and Republicans on the wesite of the L.A. Times (original
here). It illustrates the lie that the right is foisting upon us about unethical behaviour, that "everyone does it".
My sleaziest encounter with a lobbyist occurred in my Finance Committee office. One lobbyist, whom I did not know, somehow got 15 minutes on my schedule to describe the unbearable suffering AIG was being forced to endure by some corporate tax provision or other that he wanted to get repealed or amended or some such. I feigned interest, nodded a lot, maybe let a hint of sympathy into my eyes, and said nothing. If he told his masters that I was anything other than noncommittal, he was lying.
The next day one of my assistants rushed into the office. She had just opened an envelope addressed to me, and was shaking as she handed it to me. It was from AIG's lobbyist -- a letter thanking me for the meeting and a check made out to my boss' reelection campaign. I would not even use a sheet of Senate stationery to reply. Instead, I handwrote a harshly worded version of "How dare you?" on the lobbyist's letter and sent it back to him with the check
Hardly the actions of a town where everyone is on the take.
He then goes on to illustrate how good lobbyists do their busisness, and how they have been squeezed out by the likes of Abramoff.
He then talks about how Republicans imagined that Democrats had to be crooked to hang onto the House for 40 years, and how wrong they were:
Republicans, having seen their own margin slip to as low as eight seats, rightly feel that control of the House is up for grabs every two years. During the 40 years that House Republicans were a powerless group locked out of every governing decision, they understandably got some crazy ideas about what was going on behind the Democrats' closed doors.
They weren't imagining me indignantly sending back an improperly delivered campaign check. They weren't imagining my boss, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, deciding to vote against a bill because it would benefit one of his big contributors and he didn't want anyone raising conflict-of-interest questions. They probably imagined us shaking the lobbying money tree and offering legislative quid pro quos like only the party in power can. But they weren't paying attention.
It's a great piece, and wonderful ammunition for those trying to say that all poloticians are corrupt (and thus we should excuse Republican excesses. Read the whole piece, and then tell your friends.