Today, after my futile daily Google news search for word that former U.S. Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kansas, is still considering a run for Pat Roberts' Senate seat, I turned to a proprietary database for a second search.
I found that one year ago Monday, the Kansas City Star ran a guest piece by Slattery urging Missouri and Kansas voters to select Democrats.
If Democrats take control of just one chamber in Congress, the stranglehold will be broken. Monopolies are not good in business, and political monopolies are not good for our country.
Of course, the stranglehold hasn't really been broken, Republican values still rule Washington, and there's still work for Jim Slattery to do if he runs and wins.
But before Slattery announces his candidacy, he should renounce his lobbying clients' interests. Because Congress doesn't need another telecommunications attorney voting to allow domestic spying without warrants.
Mr. Slattery hasn't lived in Kansas for a long, long time. He's been in Washington D.C., at the law firm known as Wiley Rein & Fielding up until Fred Fielding became George Bush's lawyer, leaving behind Wiley Rein (and Slattery).
Back in 2004, the Hill newspaper had serious flattery for Slattery and others on the firm's telecommunications lobbying team. The law firm put out a news release, which is still posted on the firm's Web site:
Of the group (The Hill) said, "Nearly every telecom lobbyist in town recognized former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Richard Wiley and his group as the top outside experts on telecommunications policy. His legislative team includes former FCC Commissioner and Senate Commerce Committee aide Dawson, one-time Sprint lobbyist Buck, and former Rep. Slattery (D-Kan.), a 12-year member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee."
Among Slattery's clients is Verizon.
In his Nov. 5, 2006 guest editorial, Slattery wrote:
Republicans control all the federal regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Their decisions affect the lives of all Americans, yet their decisions rarely receive tough oversight.
Yet we've learned, thanks to lawsuits against telecommunications companies, that those companies' decisions to spy on Americans without warrant on behalf of the Bush administration also "affect the lives of all Americans."
If Slattery moves back to Kansas to make a Senate run, there's some baggage he probably shouldn't bring with him. Pat Roberts has been a staunch backer of Bush's domestic spying. It'd be nice if Slattery found a way to differentiate himself if he makes a run against Roberts.
A year ago, Slattery complained that for the Republican Congress:
"It has become more important to avoid embarrassing the executive branch than to conduct tough oversight."
But since then, we've seen a whole lot of Democratic Congressmen decide it's more important to avoid embarrassing telecom companies than to "conduct tough oversight."
Mr. Slattery should not ask voters to put him in that club. If he runs, he should make a point of asserting independence from his telecom clients.
Kansas needs a strong choice besides Roberts because the Congress is likely to swing Democratic, as may the White House. Kansas would be at a severe disadvantage with both its senators (Sam Brownback, the other Senator, isn't up this election) sitting in the Republican minority.
Also importantly, America needs a truly muscular Democratic majority in Congress. Congress will have to fix a ton of problems, very quickly, with the sort of Democratic vision and compassion the party has traditionally brought to solving grave national problems.
Congress will have to inaugurate real security plans against terrorism, save Social Security, end the Iraq war, secure a strong safety net for injured veterans and create a truly effective energy policy.
These issues will all affect Kansans, as will the traditional concerns about rural development, the agricultural economy, energy development and transportation.
But we need a candidate who will not hide the most far-reaching of the Bush Administration's crimes by providing amnesty to its accomplices.
In his op-ed, Slattery lamented that
Some groups have hired lobbyists who care more about maintaining Republican power in Washington than the interest group that hired them.
It might be a travesty for an "interest group" to endure a lobbying firm's conflicted loyalties, but it's also a travesty for voters to endure a candidate's conflicted loyalties. If he runs, Slattery should make it clear that he'll represent Kansans in the Senate, not his former clients.
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