L.A. TIMES MAKES THE CASE FOR PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS-- WITHOUT EVEN MENTIONING IT

This morning Tom Hamburger and Janet Hook write about how lobbyists who dreaded Democratic control of Congress are finding many of their fears unfounded. Apparently these lobbyists weren't reading the DWT warnings (or what they would have seen as reassurances)  all year about systemically corrupt Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer and Steny Hoyer-- no less in thrall than Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, Jerry Lewis and Roy Blunt to the allure of Big Corporate Cash, and barely less willing to play the role of whores and to sell out the interests of their constituents.

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi terrified the oil industry late last year when she outlined her priorities for the new Democratic majorities in Congress. Within the first 100 hours, she promised, they would "roll back the multibillion-dollar subsidies for Big Oil."

Last week, however, when Pelosi (D-San Francisco) won House approval of the much-touted bill socking it to the oil companies, it turned out to be considerably less drastic than many in the industry originally feared. Out of an estimated $32 billion in subsidies and tax breaks that the oil companies are scheduled to receive over the next five years, the final House bill cut $5.5 billion.

It's not just oil: From one end of the House Democrats' "first 100 hours" agenda to the other, businesspeople and their lobbyists have found success amid the fear in dealing with the new Congress.

Surprising as it might seem in view of the Democrats' public rhetoric, business groups are getting their telephone calls returned. And they're getting plenty of face time with the new House and Senate leaders.

When I spent some time talking with Steny Hoyer on the phone before he was voted House Majority Leader, I was incredulous when he insisted that he and Emanuel were warriors committed to righting the wrongs that Big Pharma had written into Medicare legislation in return for GOP campaign contributions and bribes. The first two weeks have proven the efficacy of my suspicions as these two slimebags have worked with Big Pharma to compromise... a little. A very little. "'There was a lot more anxiety initially because of not knowing what was going to transpire,' said Stuart Roy, a member of the prominent Washington lobby shop DCI Group and once an aide to Tom DeLay when DeLay (R-Texas) was House majority leader. Now, Roy said, 'the anxiety level is down'... the pharmaceutical industry, Washington's most potent lobbying force, succeeded in blocking what it considered the most extreme proposals for reducing drug costs. At one point Pelosi considered advocating a new government-run drug program, but dropped the idea and went with a less ambitious plan. Like other industries, drug companies are hiring Democrats as lobbyists and ramping up Democratic campaign contributions. For example, lobbyist attendance at fundraisers for Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) has skyrocketed. Organizers had to add tables at a breakfast fundraiser Thursday at the Phoenix Park Hotel because twice as many people as expected showed up. Rangel was not previously close to the drug industry, whose lobbyists had battled his efforts on Medicare benefits in the past. Last week, however, a source close to Rangel said the industry's leading trade group had offered to hold a fundraiser for him; Rangel had not decided whether to accept. 'I've got so many new friends these days,' he told one reporter."


Like I always said, Rahm Emanuel is essentially the same beast as Tom DeLay; no worries for Big Business powermongers ready to start writing checks for Democrats instead of Republicans. "Business groups and their lobbyists have moved quickly to adapt to the new Capitol Hill equation, developing new tactics in Washington and at the grass roots, as well as dusting off some time-honored ways of dealing with the opposition. Many lobby shops have been adding knowledgeable and well-connected Democrats to their rosters, turning away from the so-called K Street Project in which DeLay and other GOP leaders pressured such firms to hire conservatives and dump Democrats.
'One of the lessons is that good lobbying is always bipartisan,' said Scott Segal of Bracewell & Giuliani, a lobbying firm that maintained bipartisan credentials despite the GOP pressure."

Corrupt and corrupting Big Business Big Money being bipartisan-- ie- willing to bribe legislators on both sides of the aisle-- may be music to the ears of crooked pols like Emanuel, Schumer and Hoyer, but it is bad news for the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. The L.A. Times story never mentions the solution-- the only solution to this mess that has rendered our democracy a house of ill repute, figuratively and literally: public financing of elections.

It's working well in Arizona and Maine and in other areas where it is in effect. One of the big benefits is that it allows legislators to deal with their constituents and ask for their votes rather than with big donors asking for contributions (that more often than not come with strings, expensive ones, expensive for us. And, of course, this kind of legislation encourages people who shy away from elective office and public service to reconsider in the light of not having to beg rich people for money all day and all night 24/7/365.

My friend Nathan should have explained to Hamburger and Hook before they wrote their piece that never mentions public financing what he explained so eloquently to me this morning: "The hard fact is that, corruption aside, one of the corrosive aspects of money in politics is that politicians end up spending so much time listening to the needs of the wealthy that their brains inevitably get colonized by those concerns. It's somewhat human nature, since those campaign contributors become some of their closest companions on a day to day basis. So if you want politicians to care about the needs of working families, public financing is a way to get them away from the lobbyist culture and out among the populace."


UPDATE: DON'T LOOK FOR ANY HELP ON THIS FROM ANY CANDIDATES, OF COURSE

It looks like all the major candidates will pass on public financing, Hillary first and foremost among Democrats.