McKeon Has Found The One Career That Normal People View As Even Less Ethical Than Congressmembers

Buck McKeon, Boehner's uber-corrupt head of the House Armed Services Committee, is getting ready for his next career as a lobbyist. A bunch of relatives have already started the firm and McKeon is busy lining up clients by making sure the Military-Industrial Complex gravy train is not interrupted by any sequestration. He has been busy tanking the chances of Randy Forbes to succeed him as Chair because he isn't as much a shill to arms makers and war contractors as McKeon's handpicked choice, corrupt Texas congressman Mac Thornberry.

The revolving door between Congress and K Street is usually discussed in terms of staffers, but, there are scores of congressmen and senators who cuddle up to industry and then take jobs as lobbyists themselves. Normal people see this is criminal corruption. The transpartisan Beltway Establishment sees nothing amiss… it's just business as usual. And, of course, it isn't just Buck McKeon. Between 1998 and 2004, 58% of departing senators (including 66.7% of Republicans) became lobbyists. In those same years, 42% of departing House members (including about half the Republicans who left) took the same highway to hell.

This week, Gallup found that Americans view only one career as less ethical than Members of Congress: lobbyists. "By any measure, Americans' views of Congress are as poor as they have ever been, and Congress now ties lobbyists as the most disparaged profession Gallup has ever tested."

Public Citizen, which tracks the revolving door carefully made some recommendations to slow it down with these reforms:

• Extend the former members’ cooling-off period to two years before they can begin lobbying. This would effectively mean that former members would have to wait until the next term of Congress convenes before they could begin to personally lobby members and staff.

• Include a prohibition on supervising lobbyists during the cooling-off period. Existing rules only prohibit former members from directly contacting their former colleagues, posing no restrictions on supervisory activities or arm’s length lobbying conducted by staff (often the former members’ relocated congressional staffs). These liberties erode the value of the cooling-off period as a deterrent to overly cozy relationships between current and former members of Congress.

• Revoke the special privileges that are afforded to former members of Congress. These privileges, which include access to the House and Senate floor and to members-- only gymnasiums and restaurants, should be revoked for any former member who becomes a registered lobbyist. This is the only way to ensure that a member turned lobbyist will not unfairly use these privileges for his clients’ benefit.

• Require members of Congress to disclose their employment negotiations. While federal law prohibits employees of the executive branch from seeking future employment and simultaneously working on issues of interest to their potential employers, ethics rules on negotiating future employment are more lax for senators and their staff, and looser still for House members and staff. While both the Senate and House codes of ethics prohibit members and staff from receiving compensation in exchange for any favoritism in official actions, the rules effectively leave members to serve as their own arbiters of proper conduct.

• Prohibit registered lobbyists from making, soliciting or arranging campaign contributions to those whom they lobby. In the absence of a more specific disclosure system than currently exists, this ban should extend to all members of the houses of Congress lobbied. For example, if a person lobbies the Senate, that lobbyist should be banned from making contributions to all senators.