Monday, February 23, 2009

Capital Hypocrisy Rooted in Money

By Michael Winship
February 23, 2009

The great movie comic and professional curmudgeon W.C. Fields once said, "You can fool some of the people some of the time - and that's enough to make a decent living."

Read on.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No, us ordinary citizens back here on Main Street do not "deserve what we get" just because K-Street lobbyist bundlers and high rollers like this flamboyant Texan from Antigua take a bipartisan approach inside the DC beltway when it comes to spreading their campaign contributions around.

We live in a hedge fund age. The big boys (defense contractors like GE, media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch) figured out long ago there was prudent utility in covering their bets and spreading some wealth around into the coffers of both major American political parties. So what? Just because "everybody does it" (meaning, because every politician in Washington does accept campaign donations) does not mean that as a result, all of our elected representatives have been permanently bribed.

Public officials should be judged on the merits of their voting records, and by their behavior in discharging their duties in representing the best interests of their real world, grassroots constituents. We should fully expect people who get elected to act accordingly - in the same spirit as those big money contributors act when they hedge their bets in our two-party, bipartisan world.

Some day, public financing and comprehensive, loophole free campaign contribution disclosure requirements may take the influence of money out of the system. Some day, too, the lion may lie down with the lamb.

But in the meantime, I can tell the difference between Senator Cornyn and Senator Obama, Congressmen Tom DeLay and Charlie Rangle - even though all four got at least one donation from the same now-tainted source, and both power brokers from the House of Representatives apparently did avail themselves of a junket or two (or more) from a major contributor who was also a major fraudster.

Bill fro Saginaw

Mon Feb 23, 11:35:00 AM 2009

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