Revolving Doors

A group of progressive machers in DC I work with has been trying to persuade me that Maryland state Senate majority Leader Rob Garagiola is the best candidate to win the newly redrawn 6th CD away from conservative Republican Roscoe Bartlett. Garagiola even came by one of our meetings and told us everything that's right with him-- a fairly impressive list. and he seemed likable. Last night we laid out the other side of the coin-- what's wrong with Garagiola. And of course he's better than Bartlett and arguably better than the other corrupt anti-labor reactionary in the race (former loanshark, John Delaney) but if we're talking about Washington's revolving door, it's important to remember that Garagiola was already a lobbyist-- and for Washington's sleaziest lobbying house, Greenberg Traurig (yes, the Abramoff guys).

Yesterday OpenSecrets.org asked a series of questions every American should be thinking about:

Each election, members of Congress are defeated in their bid for re-election or choose to voluntarily leave office. The 2010 midterm elections saw an exceptionally large number of sitting members leave. Where are they now? Will they parlay their influence into lucrative lobbying jobs or choose to continue public service or try something entirely new?

They answered with a Where Are They Now chart, showing dozens of them-- from both sides of the aisle, of course-- working as lobbyists. Some of the worst of the worst are conservative Democrats who played footsie with corporate criminals the whole time they were in Congress, particularly odious characters like Evan Bayh (IN), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Dan Maffei (NY), Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Artur Davis (AL), Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL), John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN) Earl Pomeroy (Blue Dog-ND), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), and Bart Stupak (MI).

In all, one third of the Members who retired or were defeated now work for firms lobbying their former colleagues, most frequently against the interests of the American people who paid their fancy salaries for many years-- and still underwrite their gold-plated pensions and insurance.

Last week we looked at Bill Posey's plan to prohibit Members of Congress from lobbying for five years after they leave office. Eric Cantor will never allow that to come up for a vote-- but then I doubt Steny Hoyer ever would either. I'd suggest another angle. If an ex-Member of Congress becomes a lobbyist-- ever-- he or she automatically forfeits all pension benefits. Why should taxpayers be underwriting their ability to make our lives worse?