This issue raises serious questions as to the role of [timely] PAC donations to members of Congress.
An analysis done by MapLight.org has concluded that on average, Political Action Committees gave more than $10,000 to each member of Congress who voted to give amnesty to telecoms not wanting to be sued for illegally aiding the Bush regime with their warrantless surveillance program(s) used on Americans. MapLight.org is an organization committed to using new technology to show the influence of money on elected members of government.
The analysis found that from January 2005 to September 2007 AT&T, Sprint and Verizon PAC donations favored legislators who subsequently voted in March 2008 to help the companies escape their legal woes.
MapLight’s executive director, Daniel Newman, talks about the questions raised by this analysis in this Wired’s Threat Level Blog Network story:
"Who are members of Congress listening to, the people voting for them or the telecoms companies that give them money?," Newman asks. "That's an open question. There's no way to tell but it’s a question constituents should be asking?"
In my fairly informed opinion, that question has been answered time after time, in a general sense; it's the latter.
Let’s be frank here; the majority of our congress critters are whores. That’s a given as far as I’m concerned. But, what makes that question dubious, even from my slightly jaundiced perspective -- is the fact that even members of Congress who voted against immunity received an average of $7,000 – not a big difference really, but if it did turn out that the vote went down strictly along pro-immunity/anti-immunity lines, those who voted in favor of giving immunity in the House bill are not only whores... they’re also hooked on crack.
Now, to be fair, MapLight analyzed contributions to House members from January 2005 to September 2007 and made their judgment based on members’ March 14 votes on the House alternative (H.R. 3773) to shrub’s approved version of the Senate bill get-out-of-jail-free card.
But in the same respect, there’s no doubt in my mind that the telecoms started lobbying hard from the day that the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program story broke in the New York Times on December 16, 2005 -- unless the Times tipped them off about the story beforehand. (which is highly possible considering the Times’ history of withholding stories for political reasons)
So, what does Newman think?
"I don't think money is the only thing that determines how someone votes," Newman said. "It does determine who has access. So many members of Congress get significant amounts of money from these PACs, so these companies have a seat at the table, as opposed to one voter who is a subscriber to AT&T's phone service and is concerned about wiretapping issues."
"It's a huge imbalance. Congress is supposed to be doing things for the country as whole."
The leading suit against the telecoms, Hepting vs. AT&T, accuses the company of helping the NSA wiretap the internet in company switching hubs around the country. The government wants that suit, and about 40 others, to be thrown out on the grounds they endanger national security.
A federal appeals court has yet to rule whether the suits can proceed. In the meantime, amnesty has become a central obsession of President Bush. He is threatening to veto any bill that expands his domestic spying powers -- power he claims are crucial to national security -- if the bill doesn't also have retroactive amnesty in it.
Hopefully, this study will apply even more pressure on any of the whores congress critters thinking of jumping the anti-immunity ship in the future. (as if the shark activist-infested waters wouldn’t be perilous enough)
Maplight.org did not look at the entire communications industry, or contributions from industry groups such as the Telecommunications Industry Association.
Also left out were personal contributions by top employees at telecoms.
In the fall, THREAT LEVEL noticed that Verizon and AT&T honchos recently began giving money to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who is a supporter of telecom amnesty.
Ok, so basically, the only thing this story revealed was the numerical amount of money the telecoms contributed to Congress. But, to me, it also revealed something far more sinister; the surprisingly small amount of money it takes for our corrupt congress critters to betray our Constitution and We the People.
Crack whores be damned!!
Peace