Monday, January 09, 2006

Framing The Abramoff Scandal

Mark Schmitt is absolutely correct in his analysis on what the Democrats reform position should be. From TPMCafe:


Democrats and Republicans are falling over each other to introduce "lobbying reform" bills -- requiring lobbyists to disclose contacts with legislators, banning trips, etc. By the end of next week, we will have between two and four lobbying reform packages, and will enter a ridiculous debate about which bill would leave fewer loopholes.

Can I take this Sunday evening calm to plead with Democrats not to go down this road. Where's George Lakoff when we need him??? Please don't reinforce the frame that this is a "lobbying scandal" and the villain a "lobbyist" named Jack Abramoff.

That's the other side's frame. This is not a lobbying scandal. It's a betrayal-of-public-trust scandal. Lobbyists have no power, no influence, until a public servant gives them power. That's what DeLay and the K Street Project was all about. What they did was to set up a system by which lobbyists who proved their loyalty in various ways, such as taking DeLay and Ney on golf trips to Scotland, could be transformed from supplicants to full partners in government.

Exactly, it's impossible to stop every person who wants to bribe a congressperson. There are too many. But in a country with roughly 300 million people we ought to be able to find 538 of them who wouldn't take bribes.

The modern republican party built this machine fully knowing the personal rewards they would reap from it. Now that they've hung themselves with it, we sure as hell shouldn't be there to cut the rope. The republicans blaming the lobbyists is sort of like building your own sports car and then blaming the car when you get caught driving 150 mph on the highway.

The really sad thing is that this is unlike a poor college athlete that takes money to play for a certain university, these guys are all millionaires.

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