The K Street Project And Other Horror Stories

It is time for Americans to look at Washington with clear eyes. The name of it is “The K Street Project” and it is the brain child of Tom Delay along with his nefariously criminal minded henchmen. The idea is, now that the Republican Party controlled by the neocon radicals, has control of the Executive Branch, Senate, House, and Judicial Branch they can force the lobbyist to hire only Republicans. This is the sweetest deal you could ever want because by forcing big business to hire only Republican lobbyist at huge salaries they freeze out any influence by the Democrats and they create a wonderfully profitable revolving door for themselves where Republican members of the Senate, Congress, the Executive Branch, and their exiting staff are hired at these huge salaries as they leave the government. What a nice way to bilk the American public, maintain absolute control of the government and stifle any opposition what-so-ever. Believe me I don’t like writing this stuff but it really isn’t some novel or fictional story or even a wild conspiracy theory but it is reality. It is so open in fact that just today Alex Knott, the political editor for The Center for Public Integrity, was interviewed and discussed it today on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The Center for Public Integrity has produced an extensive report (here: http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/default.aspx?act=summary) which outlines just how this influence peddling scheme in the form of this little project is shaping up. The deal is wonderful for the companies represented by these lobbying firms because they get billions of dollars in returns on their small million dollar investments. The deal is even sweeter for the ex-legislator or their staffers because a member of the House or Senate they can leave their little legislative seat that pays a mere $165k a year and go to a lobbying firm where he or she can rake in a cool million or two a year in a cushy new lobbying job. This should be frightening to the American people. These people are not doing Americas business unless you call robbing the treasury Americas business.

The light at the end of the tunnel might be reflected here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051208/ap_on_re_us/corruption_ap_poll) where 57% of the American people surveyed disapprove of the way Bush is handling the presidency and even better 88% of Americans say “political corruption” is a serious problem in Washington and to quote one respondent “corruption was endemic to a political system awash in colossal amounts of lobbying money and beset by an insatiable demand for campaign cash.” The additional good news is that the people seem to be capable of readily naming the politicians associated with corruption as they ticked of the names of Delay, Frist, Libby, Cunningham, and Abramoff. What is noteworthy here is that they are all Republicans. Not that Democrats are without corruption because they aren't but the majority seem to believe that Democrats are more ethical than Republicans and I would, as our President says, “Oh Pine”, that that is probably more than just a gut feeling and very close to reality. Not that Republicans are any more prone to corruption on the whole but they tend to stand too close to the fire (corporate America). I hope that America has woken up and remembers next November just what a dirty little trail we’ve been taken down by the current leadership (heh, heh, heh that’s a joke by the way) in Washington.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.