3/24/09

Lobbyists Can Cry Me A River

From Think Progress:
Last Friday, the Obama administration released a directive stating that lobbyists “cannot meet or speak with executive branch officials regarding specific stimulus projects or applications.” The head of the American League of Lobbyists is now saying the rule “smacks of segregation, discrimination” and is vowing to “push back” against the rule. The group is keeping “all options open, including litigation.”

After the way they have lobbied politicians for legislation that tore the economy down... All I can say is that they should get out in this great job market they helped create and find some honest work.

7 comments:

Pelmo said...

Yes they can get an exemption and go to work in the Obama administration.

You left yourself wide open for that one.

Connecticut Man1 said...

No I didn't. Obama did.

Don't mistake me for a part of the "Obama fan base" or even a Democratic party member, for that matter.

Just because I think he is miles ahead of anything the GOP has to offer does not mean I am oblivious to his faults. The fact that he is too much of a moderate a conservative is one of them.

Pelmo said...

I voted Green as a form of protest.
Both parties pander to the hopes and fears of their followers to get elected. once elected the promises are out the window,

In all honesty I don't know what the answer to this problem is. The Republicans ruined this country for the past eight years. Did we get something a lot better with the Democrats, or just the lesser of two evils. Only time will tell.

I am in favor of these tea party protests. I think we need a lot more and may be just may be we will wake up Washington.

Connecticut Man1 said...

The tea parties are a somewhat well organized right wing political stunt. (They are learning from the left.)

Personally? I can deal with moderate conservatives. With most I can find some common ground on some issues. But the GOP only has a handful of moderates in their entire party. The rest aren't even conservatives, never mind moderate.

My view is that eventually the GOP will disappear completely if they don't change. But before they do a third party will come.

Take a look at what McCain's daughter said the other day on Larry King. On some issues she is where I am. I am moderately liberal on social issues. It almost scares me somewhat that she is on that same page.

As far as economic issues, I am probably a right leaning centrist. No! Not a Radical American Centrist but a real centrist.

America needs a third party.

And I bet you that the conservatives (Radical American Centrists) that have left the GOP will have a third party in offices across the country before the Greens ever do (Precisely because of the kind of conservative like Meghan McCain).

And when they finally do the barriers to third, fourth and even fifth parties will start to fall because corporations can only afford to bribe so many parties before it becomes financially untenable.

Ten years ago I would have thought an "out of the ashes" third party would be more left - Greens, etc. - but about five years ago things shifted in the parties. And the republicans jumped the shark ideologically not long before their entire ideology was exposed by this market implosion.

The Overton Window has moved a mile to the left overnight shortly after the right had moved a mile to the right.

Because of this: The foolishness of Reagonomics are dead. The economy we are in now is the carcass of what is left of it dead on the side road. The GOP leadership will take years to adjust to it BUT they don't have time with this major political shift.

Pelmo said...

I know you are going to laugh, but the best perspective I heard on what is wrong with our political system came from none other then Jerry Springer as he was a guest talk show host for a week here in Chicago.

He said he enjoyed being involved in politics. He liked speaking at rallies and raising funds. When asked why he didn't run for office again, he gave the best reason I ever heard.

An elected office is a primary job which feeds your family and pays your bills. So people will say and do anything to get elected, so that they can keep this job. May be we should give term limits a try

I tend to agree.

Connecticut Man1 said...

Term limits, real campaign finance reform (no 527s, No PACs, no corporate donors and public financing and maybe tiny 100$ maximum personal donations, etc.) and ban lobbyists altogether.

I don't say all of that because I am anti-capitalism. I am not.

The reality is that good governing will help the people in balance with helping companies that will hire them. There is no balance as long as the corporations can buy the government because they can outspend us by a long shot.

Jerry Springer is supposed to doing a new show in Connecticut. (If I remember correctly?)

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