Like Lawyers Selling Used Cars

On the Federal level, politicians are scum. Yes, there may be one or two decent honest politicians and maybe even one or two that despite it all have their decent honest moments, but on average they're scum.

That's a pretty sweeping and broad brush condemnation I know. But that does not detract from its essential truth.

Consider this. In the name of eliminating the appearance of corruption politicians created campaign finance reform which does absolutely nothing to reduce the flow of money into politics but put some very specific limits on political speech prior to an election. In essence the only way it limits the appearance of corruption to prohibit anyone running an ad pointing out actual corruption in the most important days of a political campaign.

It does nothing to eliminate actual political corruption, because politicians like corruption. Corruption makes them rich. Corruption buys them dinner. Corruption buys them travel. There are no doubt many in Congress who earn more money on the side action than they get in salary.

The New York Times is reporting on a Justice Department investigation into large scale political corruption.

The investigation centers around former congressional leadership aide Michael Scanlon and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Scanlon and Ambramoff have tied to Tom Delay. Also involved in the investigation is Representative Bob Ney (R-Ohio). Scanlon has pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy, while Ney denies that he was beholden to Scanlon because of contributions and other perks.

Former Louisiana Senator now lobbyist John Breaux (D) sums up the limitations of the spoile system this way

"Contributions can only take you so far," said former Senator John B. Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat who has relocated to a K Street law firm and is now advising clients on lobbying strategy. "I tell them, 'Look, you can give to an elected official and take them to lunch, dinner and breakfast. But if you are asking them to vote yes on an issue and they have 2,000 letters from home telling them to vote no, then you have a problem.' "

Your problem apparently is either that you just waisted a lot of money trying to buy a vote or you just didn't spend enough. I wonder if Breaux and other lobbyists have a formula for how much it takes to overcome the effect of a hundred or a thousand constituent letters.

If you follow the link to the second page of the Times article you will discover that this corruption is not limited to Republicans in the House.

The Associated Press reported this month that various lawmakers of both parties had asked the Interior Department to reject a casino application from a tribe that was a rival to one of Mr. Abramoff's clients. The lawmakers later received campaign aid from the tribe and Mr. Abramoff. Among the beneficiaries was the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, who received a $5,000 contribution to his political action committee shortly after sending a letter to the department in 2002.

Now it could just be a coincidence that Abramoff happened to make a donation to Reid's PAC shortly after Reid took action favorable to one of Abramoff's clients. Abramoff probably meant to send the money long ago but couldn't find his checkbook. Yeah... that's the ticket.

We need to change the system so that a seat in Congress is not a ticket to wealth and luxury. Give them all salary of $100k adjusted annually according to growth in GDP. Then shut down all of the rest. No lobbyist dinners. No lobbyist trips. Members of congress should derive no financial benefit from their elected position beyond their salary. Anyone convicted of doing otherwise is out of the Congress and into federal prison.

Forget campaign finance reform. What we really need is Congressional finance reform.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 03:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment