Monday 12th December 2005
The US capital is swarming with lobbyists who are paid absurd sums to do shady deals with elected politicians. Now, suddenly, the courts are lifting the lid on what they get up to.
By Andrew Stephen
Please bear with me while I briefly explain why I became interested in the subject of this report. Not long after I moved to Washington 16 years ago, I started to wonder how on earth so many people I knew lived such lavish lifestyles. Like many in middle-class DC, they were often lawyers who also had political links of some kind, but I was never sure exactly what they did. And it mystified me that their lifestyles never seemed to reflect what even highly successful lawyers earn: they would move into ever-bigger mansions, fly in private jets to St Barts for weekends, and so forth.
It took years before the penny dropped. This article is an attempt to explain why limitless money sloshes around Washington - and why, as a result, we are heading for one of the biggest political and financial scandals here in history. It is about how government itself is for sale and is selling more lucratively than ever under President George W Bush. People will start to go to prison as the scandal unfolds. Two Senate committees, four congressional subcommittees and no fewer than 12 separate FBI investigations are involved. Can you actually buy access to Bush? If so, what is the going rate? Please read on.
The people who fascinated me were - and are - lobbyists, though they never use that word. The rationale for their existence is simple. America has a population of 300 million and the biggest economy in the world; it is money that makes the country go round, so there are fortunes to be made.
more...
http://www.newstatesman.com/200512120021