Sam Rosenfeld is abosolutely right over at
TAPPED: Democrats cannot back down to Republicans in the face of this scandal.
We must be willing to jettison as many of our own as it will take to come out on top. This means that the William Jefferson's of the world are should be caught up in this and cast aside (prison clothes or not).
The entirety of this scandal must be linked directly to the Republicans. The Washington Post ran a story last summer that helped explain a lot of the changes in lobbying that have taken place in George Bush and Tom Delay's Washington. WaPost Story Here
I urge you to check out the story and Josh Marshall's earlier analysis.
For those with less time or attention spans, I provide a bullet point rundown after the flip.
Washington Lobbying has exploded since George Bush took office. This problem related to George Bush as much as it is tied to Tom Delay. Tom Delay began his operation in the early 1990s, but it has flourished since George W. Bush came to town. Let us not forget some of the important facts that underlie the explosion of corruption in GOP Washington.
REGISTERED LOBBYISTS MORE THAN DOUBLED SINCE 2000!: "The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent. Only a few other businesses have enjoyed greater prosperity in an otherwise fitful economy."
ABRAMOFF ISN'T THE ONLY ONE TO CHARGE OUTRAGEOUS FEES: "The fees that lobbyists charge clients have also risen substantially. Retainers that had been $10,000 to $15,000 a month for new corporate clients before President Bush took office now are $20,000 to $25,000 a month or more, lobbyists say."
GOP SHOPS INCREASE FEES THE MOST: "All-Republican lobbying firms have boosted their rates the most. Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and the Federalist Group report that at the end of the Clinton administration, $20,000 a month was considered high. Now, they say, retainers of $25,000 to $40,000 a month are customary for new corporate clients, depending on how much work they do."
ATM MACHINE FOR FORMER GOP STAFFERS: "Lobbying firms can't hire people fast enough. Starting salaries have risen to about $300,000 a year for the best-connected aides eager to "move downtown" from Capitol Hill or the Bush administration."
KEY STAFF FIRST IN LINE: "In 2002, Susan B. Hirschmann, chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), had so many lobbying offers that she enlisted Robert B. Barnett, the attorney for Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), to receive and filter them."
IN GOP WASHINGTON LOBBYISTS TAKE THE OFFENSIVE: "In the 1990s, lobbying was largely reactive. Corporations had to fend off proposals that would have restricted them or cost them money. But with pro-business officials running the executive and legislative branches, companies are also hiring well-placed lobbyists to go on the offensive and find ways to profit from the many tax breaks, loosened regulations and other government goodies that increasingly are available."
PROFITS ABOVE PEOPLE: "Take the example of Hewlett-Packard Co. The California computer maker nearly doubled its budget for contract lobbyists to $734,000 last year and added the elite lobbying firm of Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC. Its goal was to pass Republican-backed legislation that would allow the company to bring back to the United States at a dramatically lowered tax rate as much as $14.5 billion in profit from foreign subsidiaries."
OPENING THE TROUGH: "Federal outlays increased nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2004, to $2.29 trillion. And despite the budget deficit, federal spending is set to increase again this year, especially in programs that are prime lobbying targets such as defense, homeland security and medical coverage."
IGNORING RESPONSIBILITY, GUTTING REGULATION: "Over the past five years, the number of new federal regulations has declined by 5 percent, to 4,100, according to Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., a vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The number of pending regulations that would cost businesses or local governments $100 million or more a year has declined even more, by 14.5 percent to 135 over the period."