Special K
So what is the K Street Project? A fitness program? A response to the British Downing Street Memo? From the repub side, it is described as an answer to the 40-year stranglehold the demos had on the house and the senate. I am often baffled by this kind of response to scrutiny. I have received it not only from my own children but also from every child I have ever encountered, when confronted by a big mistake, problem or mismanagement.
“He started it!”
“She did it first!”
12 years ago, in 1994 Majority Party Whip DeLay wanted to ensure that repubs kept hold of the house and senate. K Street is where most of the lobbying firms and trade associations have their offices in Washington. DeLay launched The K Street Project so that the money flowing from K Street firms flowed only to repubs. Demo lobbyists were replaced by repub ex-staffers. If demos were hired by any of the firms, repubs found out about it and would not pass certain bills or other such legislation that would benefit the clients of that particular firm. DeLay actually had a binder on his desk that specifically stated how much money these companies had given to the repubs and demos. When a lobbyist came in, he would open the book and see how much his company had given to both parties determining if business would be done (this is on the record as something he has admitted). The premise was “I am busy, why should I open my door to someone who isn’t a team player?” Pay to play was the catch phrase. Is this a repub borne strategy? Highly doubtful, but I don’t think that really has much to do with anything. The “he started it” war cry should always followed by “but who finished it?”
There is always going to be networking. I will hire my friends and people I know to be capable of the work and for whose integrity I can account. It will always be that way. I think that most people feel that having others work for you is a lot less risky if you know them and their character. Closed-door negotiations or rather, arm twisting, based on how much someone has contributed to your party instead of the actual necessity or legitimacy of the legislation being discussed has “Katrinized” the entire game of lobbyists and special interests groups. The cover of secrecy is blown off and the ugliness is revealed. And it is ugly. Put aside who’s involved and focus on the facts. People pay money, give gifts, pay salaries to spouses, offer vacations to get something from people we elect into office. It’s nauseating. But let’s not kid ourselves and act like we didn’t know that something like this was going on. We knew. We didn’t know how bad it was, at least, I didn’t. It’s hard to stay on top of this stuff. There is so much information and misinformation, as well as dismissing, minimizing and attacking, it is so difficult to sort out fact from fiction from mere commentary.
We have got to stop reclining in our easy chairs and allowing people to “take care of business”. Everyone, except the Mayor of Sugar Land, that I have ever spoken to has shown disgust for Tom DeLay, for years. I mean, everyone. Even the most right wing neocon. Yet he gets re-elected. Why? We all knew he was a scammer, right? He won because the money, connections and power were behind him.
We are finding out, recently, that money doesn’t necessarily always win. Over the weekend a single mother, ex-political prisoner with no male connection to power was voted President of Chile! A woman president in South America! Un-freakin-believable! Aren’t they like, hugely chauvinistic? What makes this even more staggeringly unreal is that her opponent was a billionaire. All that money didn’t buy him anything but defeat. The moral of this little tiny story is – money does not always win. When people start realizing that the people with the most money are not automatically the best leaders, and start voting in people that REPRESENT them, we all win. Represent, embody, characterize, symbolize. That’s what the people in Washington are supposed to be doing. That’s what we trust them to do. Are they doing it? Most of them are not. Does this make us suckers? Not really. When you have elected officials, you believe that these officials are going to remain aware that you have the power to remove them when they are not doing their job. Regardless of tenure or ties, they can be yanked out. What is the point of a representative, after all, if you have to follow them around every second, checking their work, wiping their nose, ensuring that they are above board? You might as well go yourself and ditch the rep. So we trust that the people in office will remain true to their promise. However, when transparency is a dirty word that is constantly downplayed as something that could hinder our national security, then we get confused. Suddenly, all the inner workings and dealings become so complicated because we have no idea what’s going on or how things are done. When the waters get muddied or the cave becomes so dark we can’t see, we think, well, they get a lot of information that we don’t, we have to trust that they know that they are there to be us. They are there as us – you and me. Tom DeLay is (gag) me! I didn’t ever vote for him, but he is there as me. And I don’t think I’m behaving very admirably. I don’t believe that I am behaving very honorably.
We have got to start holding these guys accountable. We need to inject more citizen action groups that are sanctioned by the federal government to oversee the “business as usual” actions of working government. People from all walks of life, not just lawyers or judges or doctors or professionals, but everyday people. Give them training. For example: a citizen’s lobbyist watch group. Before any lobbyist can present anything to anyone, they have to present to a 12 or 24 or 6 member body that “oversees” lobbyists. Their intent, their proposals etc. are filtered through this group. If this lobbyist gains approval, but deviates from their original proposal then their company is barred from conducting business for, say, five years. I think our country has grown so large and so diverse that we need additional citizens in Washington to oversee the goings-on. It is a lot of pressure to be offered a bunch of really cool stuff and have to turn it down. Expecting the reps to come up with guidelines and provisions and other such restrictions to modify their own behavior is unrealistic. We need normal people who will invest in our democracy by helping out with the extra work. They all don’t even have to be in Washington. There is so much technology that would allow people to be involved from around the country. Politicians are representing thousands of people. It is time we start incorporating more citizens into the system, so that there are more eyes. And with more eyes, comes more understanding, and more transparency. This can reach all the way into Medicaid/Medicare graft and bilking, to additions to bills that for the most part get added on without anyone reading them. Groups of people, rotated in yearly, maybe every couple of years, depending on the work, who in turn feel they have contributed and “get” how our government works, and are therefore more inclined to be able to explain it to others and be more involved. Many people are disgusted with the whole mess. I remember thinking that I didn’t like liars so I didn’t want to be involved with politicians. It took a lot to make me finally realize that these guys are me. Now, I get it. Now I want my tarnished image cleaned up. I know many people could give a rat’s bottom about what the rest of the world thinks of us. But I care. I care because I do believe in diplomacy and I do believe America is a great country. I do believe that united we stand, I just happen to believe that we should be united as a world, not just as a country. We don’t have to go around kicking everyone’s ass to be strong. We cannot spread democracy to other areas of the world when we can’t even get it right here. Stop pointing at the splinter in someone else’s eye and starting focusing on the log in our own. We got a helluva log. Let’s sort that out now.