Lobbyists Have Given More to Democrats
That’s a pretty startling headline, considering how loudly Dean, Pelosi and Reid have been screaming about the Republican “culture of corruption.” Still, that’s what a nonpartisan watchdog group is reporting.
Since the 1990 election cycle, Democrats have accepted more than $53 million from lobbyists while Republicans have taken more than $48 million for their election campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Data provided by the nonpartisan group also shows that when Democrats controlled Congress in the early 1990s, they consistently hauled in more than 70 percent of the town’s lobbyist money. The group is a leading critic of Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay’s ties to lobbyists.
“When the Democrats were in charge, they were getting an incredibly higher amount of lobbyist money compared to Republicans,” said Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Now that the tables are turned there is parity between the two parties.” Last year, for instance, Republicans took in 55 percent of the lobbyist money, which roughly corresponds to their majority share in Congress.
While I doubt that this information will deter Democrats from continuing this year’s mantra, I definitely think that this information will be used this fall by the RNC, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman to counter their claims.
This points out the faulty logic, if you can call it that, in making this THE ISSUE this fall. One of the things this shows is that Democrats don’t have an agenda; they just have a list of complaints. That isn’t appealing to a majority of people, which is what you need if you hope on winning back control of either house of Congress.
Both sides cite as an example of lobbyists’ influence on their counterparts the recently derailed legislation to create a $140 billion trust fund to support victims of asbestos exposure. Mr. Reid last week said the bill was a giveaway to lobbyists for insurance companies and asbestos companies seeking shelter from lawsuits. The trust fund would come from employers and insurance companies, but stop further asbestos lawsuits.
Republicans say the reason that Mr. Reid and mainly other Democrats filibustered the bill is because it would hurt trial lawyers, Democrats’ biggest group of supporters, who have gleaned large payoffs from victorious asbestos lawsuits. Some companies have been driven out of businesses by such losses.
In the last cycle alone, lawyers gave Democrats with $134 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which does not include lawyer money in the same category as lobbyists. During that same time period, Republicans drew $45 million from lawyers.
The reality is that the Democratic Party is bought and paid for by the lawyers’ lobby. They can’t do anything without their permission. They can’t afford to upset a group that gives 75% of their contributions to the Democrats.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing
February 18th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Just a few points on your piece.
First you use the Washington Times, a paper run by the Moonies, as your main source. Aganda aside, the Washington Times gets their facts wrong as often as Bill Clinton winks at an intern. But assuming their numbers are correct and not cherry picked, they really don’t prove anything.
Every politcian takes money from lobbiests, they woud not be able to get elected or re-elected if they didn’t. The problem that the Republicans are having, and why this is a Republican scandel, is that they took bribes, quid pro quo money from lobbiests, which is illegal.
Only a few Republicans did, but all the congressmen so far that have been caught up in bribary charges have been Republicans. But that really is mostly because the Republicans control Congress and therefore were the ones to bribe. Just like in the early 90’s when the Democrats were in control of Congress, and they were the ones to bribe. They got caught, and they were kicked out, just like the Republicans today.
So you can dream all you want, but the party in power always pays the price for the sins of the instiution as a whole, and this time, it is the Republicans that will pay.
Thank you and I look forward to reading more of your posts.
February 18th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
I’m sure Dingy Harry Reid will be glad to know that receiving money from an Abramoff-represented tribe the day after he had done some legislative dirty work for them isn’t considered bribery, and that he’s not a republican as a result…and that happened at least twice that we know of!