"Unprecedented Corruption" Republicans & the Purge of K Street

I saw a link to this article somewhere in the last three days, and I think it might have been at Atrios's blog; I don't think it was on the Daily Kos.

In any case, if someone did a diary about this, please let me know and I will add the link to this diary. I think this article in the New York Review of Books by Elizabeth Drew is worth calling attention to. Here is a juicy paragraph:

Selling Washington

"Abramoff's behavior is symptomatic of the unprecedented corruption--the intensified buying and selling of influence over legislation and federal policy --that has become endemic in Washington under a Republican Congress and White House..." The rest of the paragraph is below.

"...Corruption has always been present in Washington, but in recent years it has become more sophisticated, pervasive, and blatant than ever. A friend of mine who works closely with lobbyists says, 'There are no restraints now; business groups and lobbyists are going crazy--they're in every room on Capitol Hill writing the legislation. You can't move on the Hill without giving money.'"

It is an excellent article. I cannot contribute much added value except to point it out.

•  good find

  by TeresaInPa on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 09:02:54 AM PDT

  •  Thank you. I am really just a conduit

    in this case. They did not mention it on MTP, I noticed.

    by lecsmith on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 09:46:50 AM PDT

•  Both sides have had their share of corruption

  But when you take a party that celebrates greed and give it unlimited power the corruption spirals out of control.

  by fly on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 09:11:36 AM PDT

•  Try this

  Newsie linked this in her week in review.

  Carpetbagger report

  by Tomtech on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 10:56:32 AM PDT

•  Government as criminal conspiracy.

  Kleptocracy in action.

  So...nu???

  The AMAZING thing is that this p[articular system...which has been falling into place over the past 60 years or so...has not been busted yet.

  |Hell, Eisenhower warned about it in his farewell speech. The one where he warned against the "Military-Industrial Complex"?

  Remember?

  The fix has BEEN in...big time...for years and years and years.

  This PARTICULAR fix.

  There have been others, if you read American history.

  The rise of the so-called "Robber Barons", the control of cities like NY by groups similar to Tammany Hall...

  It's a GRAND old American tradition.

  Only THJIS time...it threatens to bring DOWN America if not stopped. (If indeed it hasn't already done so, of course.)

  The only thing "unprecedented" about THIS group is their almost total control of the information outlets that in the past helped to inform the American public about what wasa going on.

  Now...deaf dumb and blind, most of America simply plods forward unaware of what is happening to their political and economic system.

  Nasty situation.

  AG

  by Arthur Gilroy on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 11:24:43 AM PDT