Sirotablog

David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.

  • May 18, 2007 8:40 AM

    "Capitol Hill Is the New Business School"

    The Politico reports that Democrats on the House Judiciary committee yesterday "scrapped a beefed-up provision of the Lobbying Reform Bill that would have prohibited former lawmakers and senior staff from lobbying their former colleagues during their first two years out of office." The original bill "would have extended the revolving door ban from one to two years, but the amendment eliminating that provision passed by a unanimous voice vote."

    This is the ultimate proof that public service in Washington, D.C. is seen not as a calling, but as a path to Big Money. It confirms the attitude - now prevalent inside the Democratic Party in Washington - captured in this New York Times piece from 2006:

    "[A Capitol Hill] job, once an end in itself, is increasingly seen as a ticket to be punched — and sometimes comes with the almost explicit promise of hitting pay dirt after a reasonably short stint. 'It's the new business school,' said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who formed his own public relations business after serving in the Clinton White House."

    What's incredible is that the new Democratic majority is coming right out and admitting as much just a few months after running a campaign against corruption and the revolving door.

    Posted by David Sirota
    Permalink | Comments (3) | del.icio.us | digg
    Tags: culture of corruption

Discussion

  • butte [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    The Republi-lites strike again. We need to clean House, the Senate, and the White House in the upcoming election.
    These Republicans in disguise, and not even a very good disguise, are going to destroy the Democratic party with the same thoroughness that the neo-cons have been destroying the Republicans.
    If the Republi-lites make it through the primaries, maybe there should be a push for write-in candidates.
    Enough is too much!

    Posted on May 18, 2007 6:08 PM
  • waltc [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    Tell me Butte where are you going to find those pissed off and informed Democrats? Hell ever since Klinton's posse gang raped the country, the Democrats have not turned out one corrupt Democratic politician and replaced by a honest Democrat. Oddly enough it parallels what has happened in the GOP.

    Instead a lot of Dems went independent or GOP and they gave you the majorities you have today and will take them away in '08 if this continues.

    In regards to the old crooked fucks in D.C. they know most Dems are easily hornswaggled by a few bits of spin and this is why they have decided to operate in the open now. For all intents they are predators for WallStreet and the banking cartels.

    What to do about it? Well its something Sirota and people like yourself need to talk about what to do and I mean seriously as a heart attack and urgently.

    Posted on May 18, 2007 8:50 PM
  • butte [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    There are a lot of people who are feeling betrayed right now with the Republi-lites, especially the voters who swung back to the Dems after being royally shafted by the Republicans, and the ones who had been shaken out of their complacency by the obviousness of the Republican corruption and mismanagement.
    One of the things that needs to happen, is to get on Democrats.org and demand to know more about the Democratic candidates and their takes on the issues. What the site is pushing right now is a bunch of "we love us, look how dumb the Republicans are" kinds of BS. There are some posters who keep asking for better coverage of the issues, there needs to be a lot more of them.
    One of the things that this does is bring issues to the attention of the webmasters who are tracking trends in the discussions.
    We need to find populist candidates and support them, keep bringing up the betrayals of Democratic principles that Republi-lites do/have done on the Democratic site, contact local Democrats and work for them, while refusing to work for Republi-lite candidates. For instance I will make phone calls and ring door bells for the Democrats, but I won't lift a finger to help Max Bacchus, and I will pointedly tell them so.
    Worst comes to worst, I will try to promote write in campaigns for populists who loose in the primaries, or even write in my yellow dog. Basically, try to send as many messages in as many ways as I can that I'm fed up and things have to change.
    In other words start a voters' rebellion.
    If the Dems don't gather the disgruntled voters together and give them what they want, they are going to find themselves in trouble. They are going to be as out in 2012 as the Republicans are now.
    There is no viable third party out there at present that will cover the bases and attract a sufficient number of voters to affect the 2008 election except for possibly acting as a spoiler, which would help the Republican candidates.
    It's going to depend a lot on populist candidates standing up to the DNC/DLC and making their own agendas.
    2008 promises to be an interesting election.

    Posted on May 19, 2007 12:25 PM

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