lobbyists

Greenwald combines several of my favorite things: decrying the very practice of lobbying, accusing the media of complicity, and trashing David Brooks. The Moyers Journal episode he references (the one with him and Jay Rosen) was very good, too.

President Obama freezes salaries and institutes new ethics rules

Apparently he was serious about lobbying reform.

good question

One reader writes in to TPM:

Considering as how the proposed Wall Street bailout will be one of the most intensely lobbied efforts in American history, will there be anyone left to manage John McCain's campaign?

Zing!

he really doesn't take lobbyist money

This, if true, is really impressive.

where the lobbyist money is going

Opensecrets, a non-partisan outfit, draws us a picture.

The order of candidates may surprise you, but the one on top (with 1 1/2 times the number two's total) probably won't.

Fred Thompson: male prostitute!

Wow, it was a bad campaign week for Freddy. From The LA Times (c/o Josh Marshall):

Fred D. Thompson, who is campaigning for president as an antiabortion Republican, accepted an assignment from a family-planning group to lobby the first Bush White House to ease a controversial abortion restriction, according to a 1991 document and several people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for the former Tennessee senator denied that Thompson did the lobbying work. But the minutes of a 1991 board meeting of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Assn. say that the group hired Thompson that year.

His task was to urge the administration of President George H. W. Bush to withdraw or relax a rule that barred abortion counseling at clinics that received federal money, according to the records and to people who worked on the matter.

You got that? Hollywood Fred actually lobbied Bush 41 against the gag rule! Thompson's goons are, of course, saying it never happened, but the man himself?

"I'd just say the flies get bigger in the summertime. I guess the flies are buzzing," said Thompson, who is considering running for president as a social conservative. He refused comment on whether he recalled doing the work.

Wow, dodgy and an asshole!

Meanwhile, the power tools and other rightwing hacks are preparing another defense: lobbyists shouldn't be accountable to their patrons because they don't necessarily have to believe in someone's cause to lobby for it. Yeah, have fun with that defense, guys.

ARMPAC finally dead

Good riddance, motherf**kers. This is cause for celebration right here!

Seriously though, the "in like a lion, out like a lamb" aspect of this is pretty surreal. I mean Tom Delay's PAC was one of the bad guys' main funding arms for a decade and more; up until last election, you could pretty much tell which Republicans were the worst (and best funded) of the bunch just by reading down the list of ARMPAC's beneficiaries. Both Chris Chocola and Randy Neugebauer were on that list, if I remember correctly. This PAC was also the national version of Texans for a Republican Majority, which eventually ran afoul of state campaign finance laws (no small feat in Texas) and led to Tommy Boy's indictment and resignation.

Looks like we're finally starting to see some of the roaches crawl back into the gutters.

the making of the prescription drug bill

Here is an eye-opening and well done piece on the power of the pharmaceutical lobby and the crafting and passing of the prescription drug bill, one of the most expensive and poorly conceived programs in postwar history.

No! It CAN'T be true!

As Upton Sinclair famously said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Meet Senator James Inhofe:

Top contributor for 2006 by industry sector, 1) Energy and Natural Resources: $604,965.

Top contributor for 2006 by industry: 1) Oil and Gas: $319,708, 2) Electric Utilities: $195,907.

Top individual contributors for 2006, 1) Murray Energy Corp: $22,800, 2) Koch Industries: $22,750

Travel Financed by Special Interests for 2006 Cycle: 34 trips

Total Cost of trips: $45,131.92

Sponsor of most trips: Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Assn.

Top contributor for 2004 by industry sector, 1) Energy and Natural Resources: $590,219.

Top contributor for 2004 by industry: 1) Oil and Gas: $304,156, 2) Electric Utilities: $188,713.

Top individual contributors for 2004, 1) Murray Energy Corp: $33,200, 2) Koch Industries: $22,750

Top contributor for 2002 Election by industry sector, 1) Energy and Natural Resources: $533,519.

Top contributor for 2002 Election by industry: 1) Oil and Gas: $284,706, 2) Electric Utilities: $162,213.

Top individual contributors for 2002 Election, 1) National Republican Senatorial Cmte $33,500, 2) Murray Energy Corp: $33,200, 3) Koch Industries: $16,750

I know, I know, you could've guessed as much without the proof, but Senator "No queers in my family line!" Inhofe pissed me off yesterday by doing his moronic grandstanding with Big Oil's most misleading talking points.

Hey Jimmy boy, Al Gore doesn't think those "thousands of scientists" are wrong and he's right; he thinks they're wrong and the vast majority of scientists worldwide are right. As well as those of us with a 9th grade science education. Or are the nation's science teachers also in on what must now be the world's largest conspiracy ever?

James Inhofe, R-Exxon.