I was just over in
Raybin's diary on Bob Casey when something
bink said got me to thinking. We all (or most of us anyway) rail about the bought-and-paid-for corporate media, the armies of corporate lobbyists who are the
de facto, if not
de jure authors of most of our legislation these days.
So how would it be if we could get some sunshine into those dim, dank corners of those smoky back rooms in which what ought to be the people's business gets done? More on the flip.
How about a requirement that any bill more than 50% written by any lobbying organization(s) has to be named for the group(s) that wrote it? We've already got the Nokia Sugar Bowl and the Bud Lite halftime report and other abominations in the sight of God and all right-thinking people. (Or should I be phrasing that "correctly thinking people"?)
So why on earth not the MBNA Bankruptcy Bill, or the Merck Medicare Reform Bill? It can't be any more misleading than the USA-PATRIOT Act or No Child Change Left Behind.
More seriously, this might be an admittedly hoky way to start some possible conversations about maybe sorta-kinda-ocasionally cutting the special interests and their huge warchests out of the electoral process. Public funding of elections is another one of those wonky political issues, like the filibuster, that our mythical average American doesn't know the first thing about and only notices if it happens to interrupt his/her broadcast of "Survivor" or "American Idol."
So, whaddya think? Am I completely 'round the bend, or only partly?
Flame away in the comments. And take the poll.