Blanche Lincoln the Champ (at getting money from lobbyists).
I was not surprised to learn that Senator Blanche Lincoln, from that "champion of the little guy" Democratic party, led all Arkansas politicians in money raised from lobbys. Still, the magnitude of her lead surprised me.
(Click time below for rest of story)
(Click time below for rest of story)
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Monday, January 30, 2006
6 Comments:
According to this (http://nwanews.com/adg/News/144070/) Paul Barton article, K street lobbys gave Senator Lincoln about a quarter of a million dollars, the vast majority of it during the 04 election cycle.
Mark Pryor had only half the contributions Lincoln had. None of the Congressmen came close either. Her money from K street lobbyists in Washington alone was double the cash raised by her opponent in the last election. And of course, once you have a pile of money, other home grown lobbys see you as the winner and give even more cash.
What I found really shocking was that Lincoln was #12 nationally on the list of K street donors. She was not just #1 in Arkansas, but of all of our wonderful politicians across this great nation, she was among the elite group who raked in the most from the special interests.
Of course she denies that this effects her votes. Do I believe her? It does not matter. The point is that special interests in Washington find her to be very pliable for them. They don't give away that kind of cash to someone who is looking out for the folks back home first.
The Focus on the Family or Family Cousel folks are burning tons of money to get Blanche to confrim Alito. Hah! They should have given half as much money to Holt as they have spent on commercials and he could have beat her. The FOF people would not have had to pressure Holt- he'd have voted their way just cause he wanted to.
Max Brantley at the Arkansas Times Blog is tracking our identites now through our IP addresses. He even admitted it on Sunday in a comment.
This really bothers me, and I'm sure some of you out there must be concerned too.
Instead of bashing only ONE politician that took some money from K street. Why not strive more for campaign finance reform. Why not bash the Republican K street program. Only pointing out one side makes you look like as ass.
Oh yeah--that'll solve the problem! We just need more laws!
I thought the McCain/Feingold 'reform' was going to be the reform to end all reforms. Instead, it has diminshed the lobbying power of the small entity donors and empowered the fat cat lobbyists.
The real problem is a corrupt two-party system with little incentive for honesty. No matter who we support, the people end up getting robbed. But don't admit it; just keep pointing out the corruption in the 'other' party more vocally than they point out yours, lest your guys lose the next election (gasp!).
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