Culture of Corruption

TOM MAERTENS

The Abramoff-DeLay scandal reveals the extent of corruption in the modern-day Republican Party, and specifically, the corruption introduced into our political system by lobbying.

Legislators and lobbyists defend the practice of lobbying by citing the constitutional right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that this includes contributing money for that right -- paying for access, in effect, which is what modern-day lobbying is. It that were true, then it would be unconstitutional for Congress to pass legislation restricting campaign finance, such as McCain-Feingold.

Lobbying is so lucrative under the current regime that the number of lobbyists in Washington has increased from 9,000 to 34,000 in just five years.

The Republican financial corruption is derived from its political corruption, its pursuit of power at all costs. Much as they might pretend that they are the party of principles, does anyone seriously believe that this is the old Republican Party of balanced budgets, small government, and responsible internationalism?

Their only principle is to attain power by whatever means necessary, and money is the key, extracted mostly through corporate shakedowns led by Tom DeLay. As a smokescreen for their actions, they distract conservatives with hypocritical prattling about morality while wallowing in a cesspool of corruption.

In the process, they have corrupted our democratic system itself.

Lawmaking in the House under Hastert and DeLay has become fundamentally undemocratic. Legislation is written behind closed doors by Republicans and their favored lobbyists without the participation of the minority. Democrats are barred from House-Senate conferences and even threatened with house arrest by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Earmarks are inserted at random by a corrupt leadership trading taxpayers' money for colleagues' votes to stay in power. The leadership unilaterally changes bills already approved in committee without notification to members.

Quorum calls are held at odd hours and meetings are held under emergency procedures so that Democrats and the press can't participate. Votes are arbitrarily held open for the convenience of the Republican leadership while it twists arms. The administration substitutes bills in the dead of night for legislation already debated in committee (like the Patriot Act) which the lapdog Republican leadership rubberstamps. On White House orders, Congressional staffers have unilaterally removed language from bills already passed by both houses of Congress, as they did with in November 2004 with provisions modifying travel controls to Cuba that Bush didn't like.

The Abramoff-DeLay scandals then are the natural outgrowth of the corrupting influence of power. The negative publicity will force changes on the reluctant majority, perhaps before the November elections. Even Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay's handpicked choice for Speaker of the House, is talking about lobbying reform. Any Republican who hopes to survive the coming elections had better get on the reform bandwagon.

Stricter rules on lobbying should be adopted immediately, requiring more extensive disclosure and independent enforcement:

• Serious restrictions should be placed on lobbyists' activities, including the practice of allowing ex-members to lobby on the House floor, eliminating lobbyist-paid travel and perks, as well as use of corporate aircraft, and use of lobbyists to run members' fund-raising campaigns. Lobbyists' contributions should be posted on the Internet. Members of Congress should have to abide by the same limitations on free perks and gifts that they impose on the executive branch.

• The practice of earmarking money for members' pet projects should be eliminated. The recent Transportation Bill contained more than 6,300 earmarks costing taxpayers an estimated 24 billion dollars.

• Congressional rules should be modified to prohibit the practice of conferees adding provisions to legislation that were never approved by either house. This would help limit the corrupt log-rolling that goes on in closed-door House-Senate conferences restricted to Republicans only.

• The practice of politicians establishing charitable foundations as money-raising dodges should be limited by requiring such foundations to make full disclosure on a quarterly basis of all of their sources of funds and the disposition of such money, including itemizing all gifts and gratuities given and received. That would help eliminate organizations like the Capital Athletic Foundation, which gave only 1% of its $6 million in contributions to charity and put the rest in the pockets of Abramoff, DeLay and their family and friends.

• Congress should establish an inspector general for each chamber that would be independent of both parties, like the CBO and GAO, to get around the current practice of stacking the ethics committee to protect corrupt politicians like Tom DeLay.

• While they are at it, Congress should reinstitute the original PAYGO rule that required equal spending cuts to offset every new expenditure. The current version, passed by the Senate and the House Budget Committee in 2004, excludes entitlements and tax cuts, and is nothing but a smokescreen to hide Bush's raid on the Treasury for the benefit of his fatcat friends.