Lamentations On Lobbyists

Jack Abramoff, a once powerful Washington lobbyist, is pleading guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud. He is essentially accused of influence-peddling and corruption in association with members of Congress. More information is available, but most is wildly speculative. This publication will wait until the facts become clear instead of spreading 'hot copy' (copy is journalistic material).

Rather, our current focus will be on lobbyists in general. More specifically, how does legislation get written? Anyone?

If you believe the law is written by lawmakers... you're wrong.

Legislation is written by the 'special interests' and their lobbyist sell that legislation to lawmakers. 'Special Interest' (SI) is a term with a negative connotation. Any entity which does not function for the good of all is a 'special interest'. SI's are corporations, citizens' groups, industry specialists, whatever. Lawmakers listen to those with expertise in a specific area. Those with expertise are those who deal with that issue the most. An oil company has extensive expertise regarding oil. Get the idea?

SI's with enough money to promote their agenda (free speech) do so by hiring lawyers who write legislation which benefits their SI. Lawmakers listen to various SI's and decide which are credible and which are not. They accept (or reject) pre-packaged legislation and then take it as their own. Think of it like this: If you were an elected official and a corporate SI told you a certain piece of legislation would create a million jobs in your state, you'd probably support it. But what if the legislation didn't protect the water supply and it caused a million children to get sick? You would wish you had consulted an environmental SI.

The problem, as I see it, is the lack of concern for the public welfare. Our congressional leaders must stay grounded in reality while living in a world of fantasy. The reality is each legislator deals with many SI's and they have certain levels of trust for each lobbyist. But when does a lawmaker lose touch with his constituents and begin serving the SI's? That's my concern...