In the continuing Abramoff fallout department, a disgraced Boss DeLay has picked up a primary challenger, Tom Campbell, in his home district. “‘If we don’t clean house in March, we’ll lose the House in November,’ Campbell said.” Meanwhile, as the GOP tries to choose between two K-Street darlings for their new majority leader, the House looks to the McCain-Shays bill of last month as a template for new lobbying restrictions.”The McCain bill would beef up lobbying disclosure considerably and cover grass-roots lobbying campaigns, which now go unreported. It would also require lobbyists to report each fundraising event that they host or sponsor for candidates for federal office, including the amount raised. In addition, the McCain bill would require lobbyists to report the donations they give to lawmakers directly and at events that honor lawmakers or entities that they created or control. It would also require lobbyists to disclose quarterly — which would be twice as often as they file now — any gift worth more than $20 that they give to lawmakers or their aides, including meals and tickets to events.” Sounds like a start…but it’ll take more than increased disclosure to transform a Washington culture that’s turned rancid in recent years thanks to overwhelming lobbyist influence.
Tag: John Boehner
Post-DeLay Fallout.
More bad news for Boss DeLay: Once again, a Texas court has refused to dismiss money-laundering charges against him. Meanwhile, Speaker Dennis Hastert taps David Dreier to pen new lobbying rules for the House (ignoring the fact that Dems, with the aid of Republican Chris Shays, composed stricter lobbying legislation months ago.) And GOP insiders (and, basically, DeLay flunkies) Roy Blunt and John Boehner scramble to take DeLay’s place as majority leader, despite both being tainted by Abramoff contributions. Two days after the Hammer’s fall, and it’s already becoming clear: The only real way to cleanse Congress of this current wave of corruption is the ballot box, come November.