The partisan political speeches and denunciations are over with and the General Election is in full swing, but there is an untold or at the very least, the big underreported activities of corruption at the highest levels within both the Democratic and Republican Convention delegates. Brian Ross, ABC News Chief Investigative Reporter conducted an undercover investigation titled, “Following the Money Trail” in which he was able to expose the shenanigans of the upper echelon and committee officers within the campaigns of both political parties. While some of the most stirring speeches were being spoken in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, Corporate Lobbyists were throwing lavish parties for Democratic and Republican lawmakers. For the Republican bigwigs, a big party was paid for by the NRA, Lockheed Martin, and the American Trucking Association, featuring entertainment by a band called, ironically, “Hookers and Blow.” According to the report, at least 200 parties had been scheduled during the Republican Convention; just about the same number as the Democrats.
Following in the same traditional practices, Corporate Lobbyists from CitiGroup, Merrill Lynch, and UBS spent millions of dollars on food, drink, and entertainment to influence Democratic lawmakers. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has a “Pelosi 100,” which are wealthy contributors to the Democratic Party who pay $100,000 in personal funds for access to Legislative leaders within the Party. Despite the rhetoric within both the Democratic and Republican camps to “Reform” or “Change” the way things are done in Washington D.C. as far as fighting the entrenched Special Interests and Corporate Lobbyists influencing lawmakers, it is only paying lip service to the voters. During the Democratic National Convention, Senator mentioned about “The government must be about we the people, not we the favored few,” but in reality it seems that “The more things appear to change, the more they remain the same.”
These stark political realities were parodied in 1992 by the movie, “The Distinguished Gentleman,” starring Eddie Murphy. The movie was a satire which wasn’t and isn’t too far from the truth as it attempted to portray the sleaziness, greed, and corruption of Congress (“House of Representatives”) and Eddie Murphy played con-man turned Congressman Thomas Jefferson Johnson. To show the neophyte Freshman Congressman how things really are done in the nation’s Capitol was a perhaps over-the-top but nonetheless tour-de-force performance by actor Lane Smith as Dick Dodge, Power & Industry Chairman. Two of the realistic and applicable issues that were raised in the movie, though not treated seriously were ‘Corporate Finance Reform’ and ‘Environmental Protection.’
The thing that is inexplicable is why was ABC the only network to cover this monumental disconnect between all the passionately convincing political diatribe and business-as-usual.’ Although Congress has its own ethics reform law called the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act” but it contains loopholes purposely enacted by Congress so that they would not be constrained by the very piece of Legislation that they passed into Law. The promised “Change” by both Presidential candidates may be more of a superficial one on the surface because behind the scenes it may be just more of the same.
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
September 7, 2008
pbks@hotmail.com
