Hustling on K Street-Under the Republicans, it's all for sale

[Robbien]

When faced with evidence of corruption and sleaze by such Republican stalwarts as Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, conservatives have responded in three ways. The first is to deny the accusations altogether. The second is to concede them, but insist the rot is confined to a few bad apples. The third, favored by the most independent-minded conservatives, is to declare that power has made Republicans just as corrupt as Democrats. The Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson, articulating this latter response, wrote that the "closed, parasitic culture of convenience — with its revolving doors, front groups, pay-offs, expense-account comfort and ideological cover stories — is as essential to the way Republican Washington works, ten years after the Revolution, as ever it was to Democratic Washington."

Sorry, but this won't do either. The influence of corporate lobbyists over government is not just as bad under the GOP as it ever was under Democrats. It's far worse.

. . .

Business is booming because there seemingly are no limits to what Republicans are willing to do on behalf of their constituents. Last summer, Bush signed a corporate tax bill that amounted to a series of naked giveaways. (One lobbyist involved confessed that the bill amounted to "a new level of sleaze.") The Post's Thomas Edsall reported that one powerful tax lobbyist collected a bushel of breaks for his clients and collected $8.69 million in fees for that one bill. No doubt it was money well spent.

Virtually every element of the Republican agenda has the effect — I suspect the intent, but I can't prove that — of enriching special interests. Bush has enacted five tax cuts, a Medicare prescription drug bill stuffed with billions in corporate subsidies, tort reform, bankruptcy restrictions, various tariffs and regulatory rollbacks enacted by administration appointees who frequently oversee the industries they once represented.

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This ethos is emblemized by the "K Street Project," a GOP effort to force lobbying firms to donate to and hire Republicans exclusively. The party expects total loyalty from K Street, and it gives it in return. The old, cozy bipartisan lobbying culture that prevailed when Democrats held power was sleazy enough. But those Democrats never contemplated anything like this.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait24jun24,0,4670656.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions