Should Washington Lobby Shops have Ethics?
Have some corporations and lobbyists lost sight of what being an American means? If you agree, what is your solution?
EV-Undercover, under fire, by Ken Silverstein, Commentary, LA Times: Earlier this year, I … headed to downtown Washington for meetings with … prominent lobbyists. I had contacted their firms … pretending to be the representative of a London-based energy company with business interests in Turkmenistan. I told them I wanted to hire the services of a firm to burnish that country’s image.
I didn’t mention that Turkmenistan is run by an ugly, neo-Stalinist regime. They surely knew that, and besides, they didn’t care. As I explained in … Harper’s Magazine, the lobbyists I met at Cassidy & Associates and APCO were more than eager to help out. In exchange for fees of up to $1.5 million a year, they offered to send congressional delegations to Turkmenistan and write and plant opinion pieces in newspapers under the names of academics and think-tank experts they would recruit. They even offered to set up supposedly “independent” media events in Washington that would promote Turkmenistan (the agenda and speakers would actually be determined by the lobbyists).
All this, Cassidy and APCO promised, could be done quietly and unobtrusively, because the law that regulates foreign lobbyists is so flimsy…
Now, in a fabulous bit of irony, … the … lobbyists have attacked …, saying that it was unethical of me to misrepresent myself when I went to speak to them. That kind of reaction is to be expected from the lobbyists exposed in my article. But what I found more disappointing is that their concerns were then mirrored by Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz…
June 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I love it!! Some of these lobbyists don’t have a conscience, they completely forgot the pledge of allegiance, and if they do have a soul, I’d be real surprised.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:13 am
“Little piggies,
Come out come out wherever you are”.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
LOL
June 30th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
We have a “win at all costs” mentality in many things in the U.S. We teach our children this in even high school sports where coaches will tell their players, “take that guy out,” if that “guy” is an effective player on the other team. Even if it results in a penalty, injuring the other player so he can’t continue is “fair game,” because that might be “what it takes to win.”
Political campaigns, lobbying, sports, tests, business deals, etc. We teach our young people that “winning is everything” and nobody remembers a loser. The biggest problem with Washington is that our politicians and lobbyists are expected to “win at all costs” for the people they represent or receive big campaign donations from or for, in some cases, “the highest bidder.”
In the polls for Congress, the same people who don’t like Congress, often have a much higher opinion of their own representative and reelect them each election and “blame” the others for holding their representative back. Pork is only hated when somebody else gets it.
Don’t look for things to change unless the voters start to do more of their own lobbying like they are doing with this immigration bill.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
HERE’S JOHNNIE!!!! http://porkbusters.org/
June 30th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Bill
Thanks Great site!
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:01 am
What’s the difference between a lawyer and a lobbyist?
A lawyer is required to defend people (broad generalization).