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Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Revolving Doors

The Moose revisits the idea of the Pennsylvania Avenue Project.

Several weeks ago, the Moose suggested that Democrats launch the Pennsylvania Avenue Project to counteract DeLay's K Street Project. As informed Mooseketeers know, the K Street Project is the Delayicans effort to ensure that the Washington lobbying community is uniformly subservient to Republican power. With the assistance of Norquist and other lackeys, the Delayicans demand that lobbying firms only hire Republicans and give their political contributions (tribute) solely to the GOP.

In contrast to the K Street Project, the Pennsylvania Avenue Project would be an effort to restore democratic (small "d") rule to Washington through uncovering the corruption of the Delayican's crony capitalism and the implementation of reforms. USA Today has an excellent editorial on the GOP ethical mess. In it, they write about the "revolving door" phenomena in Washington,

" Few jobs in Washington are as powerful as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. So when Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., announced last year that he was retiring, a bidding war erupted for his services. Would he take over the Motion Picture Association of America? Or would it be the top job at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America? Tauzin, whose committee wrote the Medicare drug-benefit law, chose PhRMA for a reported $2 million a year. Tauzin is just one of many lawmakers who've gone straight from Capitol Hill to special-interest groups."

Here's a good target for the Pennsylvania Avenue Project to reform - K Street. Propose tightening the rules on Members of Congress becoming lobbyists. Surely, there are similar areas in desperate need of reform.

Remember Democrats - you are no longer in power and therefore you are liberated to become the anti-establishment insurgent reformers. Being a minority party can have its virtues.
-- Posted at 2:50 PM | Link to this post | Email this post