Another Take on Lobbying Influence

[Pangloss]

I've linked below a fascinating op/ed piece by a Washington lobbyist that I think everyone should read. Of course you want to read this with a grain of salt -- his position is self-serving, no doubt about it. But he is producing an alternate opinion that you will read in very few other places.

 

What you're mostly hearing these days is that the problem with lobbyists is the practice of "earmarking". But, and I've heard this in a couple of places recently, there is a murmuring undercurrent that says that the real problem is not earmarking, but rather the fact that it's the lobbyists that, increasingly, are what get congresscritters re-elected. The fundraisers they host are the main vehicles for producing the large sums of cash needed to stage the media campaigns they need to beat their opponents. I read this in Zell Miller's book, I read it recently in a piece somewhere by John McCain, and it's present in this piece as well. I think that fact may be the missing link, if you will, to discovering the real problem with Washington.

 

At any rate, here's a fascinating quote from the piece I think you guys should read:

 

There are many cause-based lobbyists like me, standing with cell phones pressed to our ears on Washington street corners, working to catch a handful of budgetary decimal dust for nonprofit programs that alleviate human suffering and troubles such as underage drinking, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, homelessness, dropping out of school and fraud against the elderly. Most of us believe that the institution of lobbying needs reform, particularly the practices of gift-giving and campaign donations. Instead of getting rid of earmarks, though, Congress should require that earmarks have clear planning goals, cost-benefit analyses, evaluations, annual reports to Congress, time limits and a solid rationale for being connected to existing authorizations. I could guarantee that for every dollar I request.

 

The guy can turn a phrase, huh?

 

Read the whole thing here:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101146.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

[cosine]

Thats a really good article, Pangloss, thanks for the link.

 

I think he's concerns are important. Personally I don't have anything against earmarking and lobbying, its how we petition our government and get things from it. I wonder if perhaps the problem is less lobbying reform and more campaign finance reform. Because its when money controls who wins elections that the corporate representative lobbyists outstage the public interest lobbyists, (although there have been impressive lobbyist showings by nonprofits in the past).