British Conservative's view on US Political Corruption

Greetings from Europe!

Arrived Paris Thursday and now in Amsterdam, on a fashion hunt you know. On the train I read London's CONSERVATIVE Financial Times (FT) and the more liberal Guardian. Seems our long-entrenched Congressional Corruption has finally made the British presse, with BOTH papers equally alarmed.

From the FT: Jurek Martin's LETTER TO AMERICA, "Money makes a mockery of democracy:"

Just before Christmas the House of Rep voted on a masssive budget reconciliation bill. Upwards of 800 pages of legislation wre dumped on members' desks at four in the morning, with the vote scheduled one hour later. Most had no idea what was in the bill. The only people who did were the LOBBYISTS WHO WROTE IT AND THE LEADERSHIP THAT DID THEIR BIDDING!!!! (emphasis mine, as I've been a broken record on this for years!).

"The bill GUTTED MANY SOCIAL PROGRAMMES FOR THE UNDERPRIVILEGED ANS SHOWERED FAVOURS ON THOSE WITH CLOUT. This is no surprise as the majority leader, Tom DeLay years ago came up twoth the "K Street project," designed to people the lobbyists' avenue with more of his like-minded Republican friends...

"It was the perfect illustration of the pernicious marriage of money and politics...
"In simultaneous and perfect juxtaposition to this OUTRAGEOUS PERVERSION OF DEMOCRACY stood the obituaries of William Proxmire, who spent virtually no money gettin re-elected....he was never for sale.

"...Jack Abramoff...is the super-lobbyist who robbed the poor (Indian tribes) to peddle influence to the rich... (and) will lay bare how politicians can be bought--and which were.

"Abramoff is VERY MUCH A REPUBLICAN PROBLEM. running restaurants where politicians fed at his trough...paying off conservative pundits for publishing kind words about his clients.

"His connections, apart from DeLay...include congressmen, a senator, the upper reaches of the interior department...and such party stategists as Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist (who may regret once saying THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NEEDED "A HUNDRED JACK ABRAMOFFS!!!" (emphasis mine, I've been saying this for years!)...

"It seems to me that only if Americans--and that means Republicans as well as Democrats and Independents--recover their SENSE OF OUTRAGE about the abuse of money and power will there be even a chance of change. Oh, and a few more Don Quixote politicians such as Bill Proxmire." (end)

Sure, Democrats have and are subject to moneyed influence as well, but the lion's share, AS THIS CONSERVATIVE British paper notes, is done on the Republican side of the ledger, and has been for a long, long time.

I appreciate Mr. Martin's warning, as it corroborates my own: this continued corruptive buying of our government will DESTROY our democracy, our national well-being and our ultimately our nation.

We CAN stop it, we CAN do better. But we must drop our emotional attachments to labels, party affiliations and the past and instead look at reality and commit to making a better whole.

In the end we are neither Republican or Democrat. As Bill Murray in Stripes said, "We're not Watusi, we're American with a captial "A!"

And with that I'm off to quaff!

Tot seens! Rd