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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

A little truth on lobbying

Reading this rather pointless piece on the lobbying firms changeover from Republican personnel to Democratic personnel, there was this little gem of blatant truth.
Steve Elmendorf .... said Democrats in the House and the Senate would operate differently.

“The Republicans’ view of lobbying is we give people money, we buy them lunch and then go up and tell them what to do,” said Mr. Elmendorf, whose client roster included Shell Oil and Ford before the election and has grown since then. “We go in and make public policy arguments. The business community is going to have to reorient their view.”

Not very clearly written, but I believe Mr. Elmendorf just told us that the Republicans were(are) available for a straight sale. "We give them money... and tell them what to do."

(I'm assuming the second quote is how the Dems operate.)

posted by mikevotes at 8:05 AM

5 Comments:

  • It is a fine line, but one that needs to be held.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 10:06 AM  

  • Yeah, I think they can do it for two years, but on the long term, it's just too easy.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:50 AM  

  • I like Ralph Nader's view on it:

    "The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door."

    By Blogger abi, at 12:14 PM  

  • Not bad.

    But, I really do think we're going to see a couple of clean years from the Dems because it's in their interest to do so. At this point, the money and advantages of going crooked are outweighed by what they have to lose if they go crooked.

    After 2008, once they've "proved" they're clean, I would expect it to go back to business as usual.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:40 PM  

  • The problem is that business is usual is corrupt, although not outright illegal. Both parties will continue to take lobbyists' money, and money buys influence.

    By Blogger abi, at 7:52 PM  

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