| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
30 Nov 2005 10:22:54 PM |
| Object: |
In and Out Burglars |
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2410/
November 29, 2005
In and Out Burglars
By Craig Aaron
The Republican majority’s greatest policy success--outside of
gerrymandering--is the K Street Project, Delay and Norquist’s scheme
to fill the plum lobbying jobs with ex-staffers, loyalists and
cronies.
Washington didn’t invent the revolving door.
Theophilus von Kannel of Philadelphia patented the first one in 1888.
But the Washington version--traveling between the public and private
sectors--was soon in full swing.
As a D.C. tradition, the revolving door dates to at least 1897, when
William McKinley named the head of the First National Bank of Chicago
as treasury secretary.
Under Bush, it is spinning faster than ever.
The Washington revolving door has many models.
There’s the administration-to-industry version, in which officials
cash in on their insider knowledge.
Some civil servants don’t even clean out their desks before helping
their new bosses.
Consider Darleen Druyun, an Air Force procurement officer who secured
jobs at Boeing for herself and two family members while pushing
through a $20 billion contract to lease air tankers.
She called the deal--which got her nine months in prison--a "parting
gift."
There’s also the government-to-lobbyist revolving door.
Since 2000, the number of registered federal lobbyists has more than
doubled to 34,750 and annual reported lobbying expenditures now top $2
billion.
Leading the charge are ex-congressmen.
According to Public Citizen, 43 percent of departing federal
legislators since 1998(excluding those who took another office, died
or went to jail) registered as lobbyists.
More than half of Republicans leaving office went directly to K
Street.
And why not?
The money’s certainly better:
Ex-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) now gets $2 million a year from PhRMA, a
golden parachute for pushing through the Medicare prescription
boondoggle.
The Republican majority’s greatest policy success--outside of
gerrymandering--is the K Street Project, Tom DeLay and Grover
Norquist’s scheme to fill the plum lobbying jobs with their
ex-staffers, loyalists and cronies.
The revolving door also works in reverse--lobbyists and executives
join the government to regulate their former employers.
One study found that more than 100 high-level Bush officials oversee
industries they used to represent (and it missed a few).
The poster-child here is J. Stephen Griles, who pulled off a
double-reverse spin--industry-to-government and back again.
Griles was appointed as the Interior Department’s No. 2 after years of
shilling for the oil and mining industries.
Once there, he not only failed to recuse himself from cases involving
former clients, but stayed on his old lobbying firm’s payroll,
collecting $284,000 a year.
Then he left to lobby for industry with Andrew Lundquist, the Cheney
aide who ran the infamous Energy Task Force.
But Griles got caught in what Carl Hiaasen calls "the glistening slime
trail left by lobbyist Jack Abramoff."
At a November hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, a former
colleague accused Griles of trying to shut down a casino that
threatened the business of an Abramoff client.
To get Griles’ aid, Abramoff allegedly funneled $250,000 to an
Astroturf eco-group run by a Griles crony.
Abramoff also offered Griles a job at his firm.
Seizing on the stench of corruption, more than a dozen groups formed
the Revolving Door Working Group (http://www.revolvingdoor.info) to
push a series of sensible reform proposals:
doubling the one-year "cooling-off" period in which ex-officials
cannot lobby their former colleagues;
requiring officials to disclose job negotiations taking place while
they’re still in office;
revoking the special privileges enjoyed by former congressmen if
they’re registered lobbyists;
and improving the frequency and availability of lobbying disclosures,
ethics forms and other documents.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) already
have introduced legislation addressing many of these concerns.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) are
likely to introduce their own after McCain completes his hearings on
Abramoff.
"They’ll pass significant lobbying reform in 2006 before the midterm
elections," predicts Public Citizen’s Craig Holman.
"The Democrats’ polling suggests this is a winner. And Republicans
don’t want the Democrats to take all the credit."
Of course, there’s reason to be more pessimistic.
Democrats have a sordid record on lobbying reform.
Bill Clinton issued an executive order in 1993, prohibiting all
presidential appointees from lobbying for five years after they left
office.
But in his final weeks, he rescinded the order, reinstating the paltry
one-year ban.
And it’s hard to imagine Republicans closing off such a lucrative
escape route for their scandal-ridden legislators.
Sen. Bob Packwood--forced out of office for his serial sexual
harassment--maintains a thriving lobbying practice.
Former Rep. Bob Livingston, who resigned because of his own sex
scandal, rang up almost $40 million in lobbying fees from 1999 to
2004.
Can DeLay be far behind?
If Tauzin goes for $2 million, how much might The Hammer fetch on K
Street?
We could be talking A-Rod money.
No wonder he can’t stop smiling, even in his mug shot.
_____________________________________________________
Reich-wing crime pays.
Harry
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