A lot of what was going on was already against the rules. There just wasn't any enforcement. |
Basically we think it's a pathetic piece of legislation. This does nothing to curb the 'anything goes' culture in Washington. |
Congress has kind of proven it's not capable of policing itself. |
It was about rules that were broken and there was no enforcement for breaking them whatsoever. |
Its time has come on the congressional level too. |
Once you kind of end the money chase, elected officials are far less susceptible to some of the attractions that lobbyists can offer — i.e. travel, food, gifts, campaign contributions. Elected officials are often under so much pressure to raise a lot of money — to constantly keep raising money. That's why they have these close ties with lobbyists. Lobbyists help them raise money. |
Our concern is that this heightened sensitivity is short-lived. And I think it could be unless reforms include credible, strong enforcement of new rules and regulations. |
Part of what the K Street Project was about was making lobbyists indispensable to Congress because of the money they were raising. |
People are scared. Both parties are tripping over themselves. |
The bottom line is that the system is broken and people are pushing against it looking for every single loophole. If you address the heart of the problem with public financing, you wouldn't have this constant end-run around the rules. |
The states are way out ahead of Congress on this. This is not some kind of crazed, untested idea. This is going on in the states. ... It's bringing accountability to state government and that's what we need here. |
The ultimate solution is public financing of campaigns. All this is based on the constant quest for campaign cash that members of Congress are always on. If you get rid of that, members of Congress will be much less susceptible. |
There will definitely be reform. The question is, how far will it go and how substantive is it? |
They're buying face time with the lawmaker. And they're not regular Joe constituents. They're lobbyists with an agenda. It's an opportunity in a nice, picturesque setting to get this kind of intimate access that you wouldn't get if you trooped up to Capitol Hill and knocked on a congressman's door. |
This gives them an incredible advantage over their challengers. |