What is the driving force to willfully commit this crime and when can we expect an investigation by the DoJ?.
Meredith Attwell Baker, one of the two Republican Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, is planning to resign and become a lobbyist for the cable giant Comcast-NBC Universal.
Just four months after voting to approve the the controversial merger of Comcast and NBC, Baker announced Wednesday she will become senior vice president of government affairs for NBC Universal. She had argued that the merger had "the potential to bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."
"I’ve been privileged to serve in government for the past seven years under President Obama at the FCC and President Bush at NTIA, I’m excited to embark on a new phase of my career with Comcast and NBCUniversal,” Baker said in a statement.
"This is just the latest -- though perhaps most blatant -- example of a so-called public servant cashing in at a company she is supposed to be regulating," Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. "No wonder the public is so nauseated by business as usual in Washington -- where the complete capture of government by industry barely raises any eyebrows."
Baker is legally barred from lobbying the commission for two years.
She was nominated by President Barack Obama as a member of the Federal Communications Commission on June 25, 2009, and sworn in on July 31, 2009. Baker was also the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration under President George W. Bush.
Commentary after the fold.
I was watching Kolchak: The Night Stalker (the lead is the father on A Christmas Story, and it's something of a comedy of horrors) with my spouse last night via Netflix, and I was struck by the coroner's dodge around bribery laws. See, the coroner ran a lottery based on Date of Birth (or death) of bodies that came into his morgue. You paid for a lottery ticket and the coroner "let slip" details of suspected murders to anyone who played his lottery.
The thing with bribery laws, is that the prosecutor has to prove quid pro quo (this for that) occurred. Hence, this is why the "no lobbying" law simply gets around that by banning lobbying for a set time period- 2 years. That's a lot easier to prove right?
So... why do these types of people blatantly ignore the law? If you remember the John Ensign debacle, the husband of Ensign's mistress (I'm not using their names on purpose- staffers really should not be public figures) joined a lobbying firm with Ensign's help... and then lobbied Ensign. This is the thing that finally saw the fellow investigated by the DoJ and finally forced Ensign to resign.
I understand the motive for violating the law in these instances; profit. But seriously? (rhetorical)
I think we have been living in a country that gives a pass to the corporate elites/hoods to violate the law with impunity for a long time. I think that when Obama decided to sweep Bush's potential war crimes under the rug that this further worsened the Rule of Law in this country.
Is there no one brave enough to stand up for the Rule of Law anymore?
EDIT/UPDATE: "spirit" was injected into the title.
EDIT/UPDATE 2: Geliga posted on this subject yesterday. Many apologies.