Text 17148, 84 rader
Skriven 2006-01-10 13:20:06 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Scandal
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From The National Review, no less.

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200601100816.asp

January 10, 2006, 8:16 a.m.
The Abramoff Scandal (R., Beltway)
It’s the Republicans, stupid.

Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona
maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in
the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into
the scandal over savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating on tenuous
grounds, just so not all the senators involved would be Democrats.

The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope
that something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.),
took more than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic Sen.
Byron Dorgan used Abramoff's skybox! It is true that any Washington
influence peddler is going to spread cash and favors as widely as possible,
and 210 members of Congress have received Abramoff-connected dollars. But
this is, in its essence, a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray
it otherwise is a misdirection.

Abramoff is a Republican who worked closely with two of the country's most
prominent conservative activists, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed. Top aides
to the most important Republican in Congress, Tom DeLay (R., Tex.) were
party to his sleazy schemes. The only people referred to directly in
Abramoff's recent plea agreement are a Republican congressmen and two
former Republican congressional aides. The GOP members can make a case that
the scandal reflects more the way Washington works than the unique perfidy
of their party, but even this is self-defeating, since Republicans run
Washington.

Republicans must take the scandal seriously and work to clean up in its
wake. The first step was the permanent ouster of Tom DeLay as House
Republican majority leader, a recognition that he is unfit to lead as long
as he is underneath the Abramoff cloud. The behavior of the right in this
matter contrasts sharply with the left's lickspittle loyalty to Bill
Clinton, whose maintenance in power many liberals put above any of their
principles. Next, Republicans will have to show they can again embrace the
spirit of reform that swept them to power in 1994.

To this end, GOP lawmakers are rushing to introduce lobbying reform.
Anything that increases transparency is welcome. But lobbying reform's
animating pretense is that lawmakers are all upstanding — until they come
under the corruptive spell of lobbyists. In every transaction, however,
there has to be a willing buyer and seller.

There are two deeply rooted sources of corruption in Washington. One is
that many members of Congress believe that they would be making much more
than their $160,000-a-year salaries if they were in some other line of
work. This sense is compounded when they watch their former 30-year-old
aides go to work on K Street for $300,000 a year. This is how someone like
Tom DeLay — otherwise a conviction politician — justifies playing the best
golf courses in the world on someone else's dime and getting special
interests to funnel easy money to his wife.

It will be a sign that Congress has learned something if it bans all
privately funded travel. If a trip is truly educational and necessary, the
public should fund it; if, on the other hand, a member of Congress wants to
enjoy fine resorts, he should quit, practice law (or whatever), and earn
the income to support his desired lifestyle.

The other problem is that Washington makes obscure decisions that enrich
small groups of people. Most everyone in Washington supports making these
decisions because it increases his or her power. But if Congress really
wants to lessen the malign influence of lobbyists, it should reform the
inherently corruptible process whereby the Interior Department recognizes
new Native American tribes so they can mint money by opening casinos, and
end the practice of "earmarking" federal dollars for local and
special-interest projects. It's no accident that Abramoff saw the business
potential in both of these processes.

Of course, making these sort of changes would be painful. That's why it is
tempting for Republicans to look for a John McCain instead.

— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.

(c) 2006 King Features Syndicate

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The Republican Party, a criminal enterprise operation.
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