A Peek Inside The Congressional Sausage Factory

It doesn't purport to be great literature, but Robert Wexler's autobiographical Fire-Breathing Liberal has much to recommend it, especially if you're interested in how exactly the sausages get made. A couple weeks ago I picked a few pieces of legislation-- NAFTA, CAFTA, FISA and a couple of Iraq War votes-- to help identify, beyond the simplistic "Blue Dog" appellation, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Another bill I could have included was one voted on from 3AM until 5:53AM on November 22, 2003-- the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits bill written by pharmaceutical lobbyists in return for massive contributions to the GOP. [Notice at that link that for the 2002 cycle Big Pharma bribes rockets up to $29,648,111 and the GOP share, the highest ever, goes to 74%.] Wexler, though, gives it the coverage it deserves, in his guided tour of the sausage factory:

The prescription drug vote began about three o'clock in the morning, a good time to start a vote if you don't want America to see what you're doing, and lasted two hours and fifty-one minutes. It was the longest roll call in the history of the House of Representatives. The Republican leadership was obviously so embarrassed by what was taking place on the floor that C-SPAN, whose cameras normally pan the floor, was not allowed to show the Republican side.

This was a bill the Republican leadership had to deliver to the pharmaceutical industry, at whatever cost. This was the hardest of hardball politics. No one will ever know completely what threats were made on the floor that night to ensure passage of the drug bill, but a few days after the vote, retiring representative Nick Smith (R-MI) wrote on his web site, "members and groups made offers of extensive campaign support and endorsements for my son, Brad, who is running for my seat. They also made threats of working against Brad if I voted no..."

Smith had been specifically targeted by both Denny Hastert and Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services secretary, who defied tradition by actually coming onto the House floor to lobby. They sat on either side of Smith like bookends, increasing the pressure on him.

Additionally, according to conservative columnist Robert Novak, "Business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote."

Yummy sausage? Several readers have questioned whether I'm being fair to call hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate campaign contributions "bribes." How about the $100,000 Big Pharma offered Smith, Sr. for Smith, Jr? Would it be unfair to call that a bribe? Smith, by the way, stuck with extreme right wing opponents-- nut cases like Jim DeMint (R-SC), Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Mike Pence (R-IN), Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Tom Tancredo (R-CO)-- in opposing the bill. After his no vote, GOP part hacks, like Duke Cunningham (not yet behind bars for accepting and soliciting massive bribes) "taunted him that his son was 'dead meat.' Months later Brad Smith was defeated in the Republican primary, and eventually Tom DeLay was admonished by the nonpartisan House Ethics Committee for offering political favors-- his support for Brad Smith's campaign-- in exchange for Nick Smith's vote."

There was also some drama on the Democratic side of the aisle since this bill wasn't going to come close to passing without some Democratic votes. And Big Pharma knew just who to turn to: Rodney Alexander (D-LA- $44,499) and Ralph Hall (D-TX- $115,483), each of whom was about to jump the fence and join the Republican Party full time, as well as a gaggle of conservative and easily bribed Dixiecrats and/or Blue Dogs:

Rick Boucher (D-VA- $210,203)
Allen Boyd (D-FL- $90,714)
Bud Cramer (D-AL- $45,533)
Lincoln Davis (D-TN- $31,500)
Chris John (D-LA- $126,218)
Jim Marshall (D-GA- $15,150)
Jim Matheson (D-UT- $149,452)
Collin Peterson (D-MN- $26,500)
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND- $109,499)
David Scott (D-GA- $46,750)
Charles Stenholm (D-TX- $54,350)

Is it bribery? Absolutely. Do the rules governoring campaign finance need drastic-- not McCain-type cosmetic, but drastic-- overhaul? You bet. And without it, there can truly be no democracy. Instead there will always be power-mongers like Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, Ted Stevens, Debbie Wasserman Schultz who will serve as bagmen for bribes on behalf of various special interests.