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jack abramoff
Protest Stopped the Predators. They Will Be Back.
The public outcry after the GOP tried to quash an ethics watchdog is the kind of citizen action we'll need to survive the next four years.
Jan 05, 2017
Mark Twain noted that man is the only animal that blushes -- or needs to.
He also believed that "public office is private graft."
Those two observations from our greatest and most sagacious humorist intersected with a bang on Capitol Hill Monday night, when the bright lights of the Republican House Conference met in secret behind closed doors at the end of the New Year's holiday.
They tried to vote themselves an especially tasty treat: eviscerating the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). That's the office created in 2008 in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal and the placement of three congressmen behind bars. The conference voted to absorb it into the House Ethics Committee. In other words, they wanted to weaken OCE and put it under the control of some of the very folks the office is charged with investigating for possible influence peddling and other assorted mischief.
If the conference had its way, OCE would wind up having all the clout of the token student representative on your local board of education, giving unscrupulous legislators freedom to rob the public blind without fear of exposure.
But a funny thing happened on the way to congressional visions of new secret bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. The public can become like sheep when the shepherd is a demagogue, but when the public is outraged over outright unfairness and chicanery, it can roar like a lion. Once word of the vote leaked out, phone calls, emails and social media recriminations from all points of the political spectrum began flooding the sacred halls of the House of Representatives, which was once called The People's House before it became the predator's lair.
Talk about embarrassment. Imagine this new congress, pledged to "drain the swamp," taking as its first action a rule that in effect would have helped make the swamp part of the National Park Service.
The nonpartisan Project in Government Oversight (POGO), declared that OCE needed "to be strengthened and expanded -- not taken out back and shot in the middle of the night." So the GOP conference fled into another closed-door session and changed its mind. We were only kidding, they said. The Office of Congressional Ethics is alive and well -- until the next time we try to kill it.
Just before the meeting, our august president-elect bestowed the Congress with two of his imperial tweets:
Followed by:
DTS stands for Drain the Swamp, of course, although we're sure many of our progressive brethren would prefer bawdier acronyms involving the president-elect himself. Nonetheless, many are claiming it was these very dispatches from fearless leader that turned the vote around. But read his words carefully: He's more concerned about bad timing; he has no great love for the OCE.
In fact, shortly before the tweets, his amanuensis Kellyanne Conway was telling George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America that "gutting it doesn't mean there won't be a mechanism" -- just that there had been "overzealousness in some of the processes over the years."
Most members of the House agree it was the public outcry that swiveled those usually obdurate minds on Capitol Hill; Trump merely once again displayed his ability to jump on the prevailing public sentiment or someone else's success and ride it to vainglory, like the story of the French revolutionary John F. Kennedy liked to tell: There go my people, the revolutionary said. I must find out their destination so I can lead them.
In the end, what this New Year's imbroglio tells us is three things. First, it's a reminder once again of the mediocre caliber of too many of the men and women running for the House and Senate these days. All too often, people of public spirit who would make ideal candidates are discouraged from running by the horrors of perpetual fundraising -- the vise of money in politics -- not to mention the spotlight shone on every small detail of their personal and professional lives. Many of the people who wind up taking the bit and running are soulless empty suits, in it for the power and the payoffs during and after tenure. Or they're already rich in the first place.
Which leads us to the second thing: venality, so often hand-in-hand with mediocrity. All indications are that our incoming president regards the White House as a pirate galleon built to increase his family's trove of plunder many fold, and the notion seems to be rubbing off on Congress. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni asked, "Is it any wonder that House Republicans felt OK about trying to slip free of some of their own ethical shackles, no matter how ugly the optics?"
"... It's the tone that Trump has set and the culture that he's creating. He operates with an in-your-face defiance, so these House Republicans did, too. He puts his own desires and comfort first, so they reserved the right to do the same. With more than a few of his Cabinet picks, he demonstrated little sense of fidelity to what he promised voters and even less concern about appearances. House Republicans decided to treat themselves to a taste of that freedom."
Third, we have to keep ever vigilant. Other anti-democratic measures inserted in the same rules package slipped past the public. The first imposes a fine on House members taking photos or video in the chamber -- a petty, vindictive, retroactive slap to those lawmakers who last June sat-in to protest Congress' refusal to take action on gun control. You'll recall that after Republicans quickly adjourned and cut off the C-SPAN cameras, the protesting members, led by Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights legend, used their cell phones to send out video and keep the story alive.
Even worse, the new rules allow not just members of Congress to subpoena and question officials and citizens; it extends that fearsome power to staff members, opening the door to witch hunts and persecutions that could make Benghazi and Clinton's emails seem like a stroll in the park. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said, "Freely handing out the power to compel any American to appear, sit in a room, and answer staff's invasive questions on the record -- without members even being required to be present -- is truly unprecedented, unwarranted and offensive."
Every battle won't be won. Nonetheless, the public DID manage to keep the House GOP from surreptitiously murdering the Office of Congressional Ethics, and that's proof we can make a difference if we keep the pressure on and hammer home our resistance and opposition when democracy and liberty are threatened.
The problem, neatly summarized as usual by Mark Twain, is that, "To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals." This week, we got a vigorous, healthy and inspiring reminder that protest matters. Keep that in mind as the perfidies unfold this year under the one-party monopoly that will soon control our federal government.
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Career of Trump's Top Ethics Lawyer Marred by Questionable Ethics
Don McGahn is a "vociferous defender" of Citizens United, among other things
Dec 05, 2016
The attorney named as President-elect Donald Trump's White House counsel, Donald McGahn, has been called "kryptonite to campaign finance reform," "a totally partisan politico," and "notorious for politicizing and crippling enforcement of federal campaign finance laws."
Indeed, journalist Jon Schwarz wrote at The Intercept on Sunday that McGahn "bears as much responsibility as any single person for turning America's campaign finance system into something akin to a gigantic, clogged septic tank."
As one of six members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) from 2008-2013, McGahn "demonstrated a much stronger interest in expanding the money-in-politics swamp than draining it," Common Cause vice president Paul S. Ryan told Schwarz.
As the Center for Public Integrity reported in May, when McGahn was merely serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign:
McGahn was "perhaps the most consequential member of the FEC in its history," said Jan Witold Baran, a well-regarded Republican election lawyer and co-chairman of the election law and government ethics practice at law firm Wiley Rein. Baran said McGahn checked the authority of the agency's staff and general counsel and used his experience as a lawyer representing clients to win rights for political committees under the FEC's jurisdiction, including those the commission is investigating.
FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic appointee, who frequently clashed with McGahn while both were on the commission, sees it differently.
"He was consequential like a sledgehammer was consequential," she said, adding, "he did his best to undermine the law."
"Now, as Trump's White House lawyer, McGahn will provide crucial advice on the nomination of judges, including to the Supreme Court," Schwarz noted. "While Trump has criticized Citizens United, and called the Super PACs that sprang up in its wake 'horrible' and a 'total phony deal,' McGahn is a vociferous defender of the ruling."
As White House counsel, McGahn will also be tasked with managing and mitigating Trump's many conflicts of interest and potentially establishing a trust to manage the president-elect's business holdings.
In other words, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism professor Marty Kaplan wrote last week, "If a U.S. foreign policy decision appears to favor a Trump commercial project, it's McGhan's job to blow the whistle on the president."
"If you think that's going to happen," Kaplan quipped, "I've got a golf course with a nice view of a wind farm that I'd like to sell you."
He's already shown he's not up to the job, Arn Pearson of the Center for Media and Democracy wrote just before McGahn was officially named as counsel:
Either McGahn is giving bad advice that Trump can do as he pleases, or Trump isn't listening. Over the past few days, Trump has mixed business and politics in shocking ways, holding meetings with business partners from India and Argentina about developments branded with the president-elect's name in the midst of accepting visits from foreign dignitaries and selecting his cabinet.
Those scenes are all too reminiscent of [former McGahn client Tom] DeLay's fast-and-loose dealings, when the congressman faced pay-to-play allegations involving Jack Abramoff and Russian oil executives while being defended by McGahn.
Given McGahn's past performance, and Trump's flouting of the post-Watergate ethical norms followed by presidents for the past 40 years, the incoming administration may well be ensnared in serious ethics scandals of its own making by the time Trump is sworn in.
Or as Craig Holman of Public Citizen told The Intercept: "The selection of McGahn to be the chief ethics cop strongly suggests the new administration is likely to be scandal-ridden and eventually perceived by the public as business as usual."
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The Democrats Ignore the 500-Pound Lobbyist in the Room
As party members meet to approve a new platform, they pay little attention to the industry that's destroying government and politics.
Jul 07, 2016
In all of the 35 single-spaced pages of the Democratic Party's platform draft, there is just one mention of lobbying.
One.
Oh, it says some fine uplifting things about voters lacking a proper voice in government, about money and politics and the need to overturn Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo, two of the Supreme Court decisions that unleashed a deluge of dollars into our electoral system.
"Democrats believe we must fight to preserve the essence of the longest standing democracy in the world: a government that represents the American people, not just a handful of powerful and wealthy special interests," the draft reads. "We will fight for real campaign-finance reform now. Big money is drowning out the voices of everyday Americans, and we must have the necessary tools to fight back and safeguard our electoral and political integrity."
But the word "lobbying" is only in there once. And that's in reference to regulating our financial system. "We will crack down on the revolving door between the private sector -- particularly Wall Street -- and the federal government," it says in the draft. "... And we will bar financial-service regulators from lobbying their former colleagues for at least two years."
The Democratic Party Platform draft contains zero about the billions of dollars spent to lobby Congress, the White House and the other federal regulatory agencies -- $3.22 billion last year alone.
All fine and dandy, and sure, language may change as the committee meets in Orlando this weekend to approve a final draft that will be sent to the convention later this month. But so far, there's zero about the billions of dollars spent to lobby Congress, the White House and the other federal regulatory agencies -- $3.22 billion last year alone.
Nothing about how lobbyists bundle masses of cash for candidates and bankroll lavish lunches and soirees at the party conventions. Nothing about the thousands employed along K Street to woo politicians and government officials on behalf of their fat-cat clients. Nothing about the trickle down of the lobby industry from DC into our states, counties and municipalities. Just the other day, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that since 2002, lobbyists in Minnesota alone have spent nearly $800 million buying influence: "The amount spent per year has doubled, and the number of new lobbying clients seeking to make themselves heard has tripled."
Funny kind of democracy where you have to shell out big bucks to get any attention paid, emphasis on the "paid." It reminds me of my late friend, humorist Henry Morgan, who used to say that the word democracy was derived from the Greek -- demos, meaning "people," and cracy, meaning "crazy."
But the Democrats' failure to sound the alarm on lobbying isn't surprising, really. No one in either of the two party establishments wants to upset the cart that delivers all them golden apples. Besides, as journalist Thomas Frank writes, Washington and the lobbyists that the city nurtures have bonded as "a community - a community of corruption, perhaps, but a community nevertheless: happy, prosperous and joyfully oblivious to the plight of the country once known as the land of the middle class."
Lobbying remains one of the nation's "persistently prosperous industries," Thomas Frank notes, with a "curiously bipartisan nature... After all, for this part of Washington, the only real ideology around is based on money - how much and how quickly you get paid."
Look on their works, ye Mighty, and despair! Or better yet, take a look at a recent article in Politico, the publication which is to Washington gossip and dealmaking what Variety is to Hollywood gossip and dealmaking.
It's the sad story of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, an attempt -- after the arrest and conviction of superlobbyist Jack Abramoff -- to address the revolving door between government and business, that sends former members of Congress and their staffs spinning into the arms of cushy lobbying jobs, too often fostering graft, greed and the gross abuse of money and power.
Instead, and in classic fashion, by the time the bill was signed into law, it had been subverted, twisted into a tangle of compromise and doubletalk that did nothing to solve the problem and may well have made it worse. Isaac Arnsdorf of Politico writes, "Not only did the lobbying reform bill fail to slow the revolving door, it created an entire class of professional influencers who operate in the shadows, out of the public eye and unaccountable."
"Of the 352 people who left Congress alive since the law took effect in January 2008, POLITICO found that almost half (47 percent) have joined the influence industry: 84 as registered lobbyists and 80 others as policy advisers, strategic consultants, trade association chiefs, corporate government relations executives, affiliates of agenda-driven research institutes and leaders of political action committees or pressure groups. Taken as a whole, more former lawmakers are influencing policy and public opinion now than before the reform was enacted: in a six-year period before the law, watchdog group Public Citizen found 43 percent of former lawmakers became lobbyists."
Further:
"There is less transparency because some former lawmakers don't need to register because lobbying is just one slice of how special interests shape laws in Washington today... [And] it's hard to tell the difference between the job descriptions of former members who are registered to lobby and those who aren't. That's because the reform law provided weak rules and even weaker enforcement. It added criminal penalties but made them so hard to prosecute they've never been tried."
And it gets worse:
The revolving door is about to enter peak season. Already 42 members of Congress have resigned, lost or announced plans to leave by January, and some are already talking with prospective future employers -- all perfectly permissible and confidential, thanks to weaknesses engineered into the post-Abramoff reform law. These members know they can command a premium -- $100,000 more than other lobbyists, according to a new study -- from an industry that values the access they can provide to the halls of power."
And you thought Congress never got anything accomplished! And then wondered why plutocrats can still skip through yawning tax loopholes and the military still gets billions for weapons systems it doesn't need and the health insurance industry gets away with murder and pharmaceutical prices are ruinous, to name but a few of the heinous ways the influence of deep pockets shafts the rest of us.
The crime, of course, is that none of this is a crime but business as usual. And so the draft platform of the Democratic National Committee mentions lobbying but once and the chicanery, gouging and legalized bribery continue unabated -- just another perfect day in Washington and these United States. Check, please.
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