Corruption Digest - February 22, 2006

As my new book Hostile Takeover prepares to be released in the Spring, here is your February 22, 2006 briefing on how America's political system is being sold to the highest bidders. To sign up to receive the Corruption Digest in your email box, just go to www.davidsirota.com and enter your email address on the righthand side.

BREAKING NEWS
In a major new report released today, House Democrats meticulously explore how congressional corruption is costing average Americans living outside the beltway bubble. The report is entitled "America for Sale: The Cost of Republican Corruption" and was released by Rep. Louise Slaugher (D-NY). You can download it here.

CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION - BOTH PARTIES
A new report from Public Citizen shows that "the handful of representatives whose votes led to the narrow passage of the controversial Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) last year have since received a total of $2.8 million in corporate campaign cash." The massive payoff was clearly a major factor in the trade pact's pay-to-play passage...Knight Ridder explores how the lobbying and political world often meet through family and marriage connections...

CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION - REPUBLICANS
The Hill Newspaper reports that Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich "is warming to Democratic-backed proposals for public financing of federal elections." The article, however, goes on to state that passage of such a proposal in this Congress is still unlikely, in part, because (shocker) "the lobbying industry has not given its blessing to the marriage of campaign-finance and lobbying provisions." In a flagrant act of hypocrisy, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) - who had formerly bragged about supporting public financing - publicly said he is now against the proposal as he moves farther and farther to the right in his bid for the presidency in 2008...The New York Times reports that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is on the defensive, denying any wrongdoing "after the disclosure that clients of a lobbyist married to the [Specter's] staff member had received money through the senator's actions."

STATE CORRUPTION
The Idaho Statesman reports that Idaho House Speaker Bruce Newcomb (R) introduced bipartisan legislation designed to crackdown on lobbying abuses...The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Georgia Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R) is pushing legislation to intensify predatory lending by some of his biggest campaign contributors.

THE CORRUPTION INDUSTRY
The Washington Post reports that despite the high-profile corruption scandals, "the return on investment in lobbying is often so substantial that experts and insiders agree that Washington's influence industry will continue to thrive no matter how lawmakers decide to rein it in." The Post was backed up by a story in Roll Call that noted "despite stormy times for the Washington, D.C., lobbying industry, the top firms in town are reporting steady growth for 2005." Specifically, "the top 25 firms collected $397.9 million in lobbying revenues — a $36 million jump from the fees reported by the 25 largest shops the previous year" and "an 8 percent climb from 2004 to 2005."

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