Comments on: Lobbying Is As American As Apple Pie

National Review: The Campaigns Embarrass Themselves By Stigmatizing The Profession

[jlelijah]

Go f*** yourself, Barone.

[samthetvcat]

---"We couldn%u2019t abolish lobbying without repealing the First Amendment, which gives all of us, even those who are paid to do it, the right to %u201Cpetition the government for a redress of grievances.%u201D---

Lobbyists act on behalf of the interests of clients. Organizations such as Unions have First Amendment rights because they are a collection of individuals; for-profit corporations DO NOT have First Amendment rights. Hence, there''s no Constitutional right afforded lobbyists, and you haven''t made the case that they''re furthering any interest greater than their own corporate greed when they lobby.

Kind of makes me sick to my tummy to even see people TRY to make the case that lobbyists when they spend millions (or is it billions?) of $$$ to try and influence lawmakers when all we individuals have to counter that influence is our vote. What voter interests was Johnny McCain thinking about when he wrote that letter on behalf of Vickie Iseman and the company that gave him free rides on their corporate plane? The FCC chair didn''t act as if he thought the letter was futhering the interests of the public . . .

[omnibus66]

Lobbyists are the lowest form of parasite. They feed off of human greed.

Unfortunately, they are protected by the Constitution, but their activities could be heavily restricted if Congress chose to do so. But that won''t happen, because Congress is addicted to the goodies offered by the lobbyists.

''Yes, K Street is not perfect.'' No, Mr Michael Barone, NRO hack, K Street is the nations red light district where Americans get $crewed every day.

[amazedd]

Lobbying has been around since Roman times. How else would you expect to get anything done in Washington, the capital?
Would you rather ride in to town and stay at an inn, or a boarding house, until you could get an appointment with some politician, to expose your case to or act to remedy your special grievance? And then, it might be years before all the legal paperwork, stamps etc. are attached to any favorable resolution; if, after having passed the approval of both chambers, it isn''t vetoed by the president!
Or would you prefer to go back and forth?
Ideally, politicians should, as they do on elections, go to the people sovereign. The problem is that there''re limited delegated representatives in Washington and many millions of citizens to attend to. Thus the lobbies, consultants who, for a fee, will try to have your case considered ASAP and handle all the necessary paperwork.

[andor3]

maybe one of those stale pseudo pies you find in back shelves at quickee marts... made by big corporations, bad tasting, unhealthy, maybe a bit rotten, and not good for anyone.

[imnho]

too mudh of anything is potenially a disater i the making. Money use to buy acess to lour local representive. These days its mutated into a thinly vieled way of bribery. This is not only not what the founders intended,its very dangerious to the health and welfare of the nation.

[ubrew12]

Tomorrows NRO headline: "Prostitution as American as Strawberry Shortcake!"

[rafterman1]

"Lobbying Is As American As Apple Pie"

In other words, whoever has the most money gets the most influence. I''m sure that''s what the Founding Fathers were hoping would happen.

[Razzl]

The idea that lobbying is unavoidable because of the first amendment is ridiculous--every citizen who''s ever tried grass-roots politics knows that congressmen and senators won''t allow you to send them comments from their web sites unless you are a voter from their district--so how hard is it for congressmen to engage in the same practice when it comes to live appointments? Members of committees should get their information from testimony at committee meetings, not from secret meetings with lobbyists. It looks like Republicans are trying to soften up the resistance to their future lobbying careers, which is what they''ll be reduced to for the coming decade after they get swept out of office this November...

[mcvet]

NO ONE who is ELECTED to represent ALL the people should take a NICKLE off of a PAID TALKING HEAD! Let the Special Interest inform their Representative''s the SAME way I have too. ENOUGH of Corporate Control of our Government... END OF STORY!! Sieg Heil Bush