http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/18/AR2005121800885.htmlexcerpt:
Making lobbying reform a priority may sound a bit counterintuitive for this president. After all, the Bush administration hasn't exactly been at odds with lobbyists. Dozens of registered lobbyists -- including one Jack Abramoff -- were among the Pioneers ($100,000) and Rangers ($200,000) who harvested big bundles of campaign cash for the president. From the White House chief of staff (former auto industry lobbyist) on down, the administration is teeming with the once and future kings of K Street.
And yet, it would be good politics and good policy for the president to bite the hands that fund him.
The Democrats can't utter a sentence these days without bemoaning the Republican "culture of corruption." How better to take the wind out of their sails than to co-opt the corruption issue? The president's most effective immunization against the Abramoff virus is one he could administer himself, by getting out ahead of the problem. After all, Democrats didn't make much political headway with Enron and the other corporate scandals once corporate reform legislation was passed.
Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), fresh from hearings that exposed the extent of Abramoff's greed and duplicity, has just unveiled his own lobbying reform plan. If the president were to adopt the issue as his own, he could simultaneously upstage McCain and bask in some of the senator's good-government glow. "Be like John" is a smart political play these days.
...more blow at link...