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In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - Printable Version

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In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - wurm - 01-08-2006

Any real, valid, good reason, that is. Seems to me that things would be much better (read: cleaner) without them. Feel free to explain it to a political moran (sic).


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - spearmint - 01-08-2006

In theory they bring issues to the attention of legislators they might not be aware of and keep them aware. In reality they are trying to influence/buy votes.


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - Jimmypoo - 01-08-2006

If you were a congressional staffer for a candidate who lost - how else would you earn a living? (assuming you weren't female)


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - MacMagus - 01-08-2006

It's mostly attorneys whose folks called in favors to set them up with cushy jobs.

Without lobbying firms to keep them occupied, our country clubs wuld be overpopulated and it would take ages to get a tee.


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - davester - 01-09-2006

Lobbying is legalized bribery. It is a huge source of corruption in the US system of government. That's all.


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - hermes - 01-09-2006

Do you ask if it makes sense or should they be allowed by law?

Lobbyists are a key communication link in a system that demands communication. But they can radically bias the government by represention process. So your question could be "Do they mess up representative government?" My answer would be yes, but maybe no worse than any other way for 250,000,000 million people to coordinate their enterprise.


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - RgrF - 01-09-2006

Lobbyists are an extention of the First Amendment of the Constitution. The right to free speech and the right to petition the government against grievances.

The perception that today is different than before is a historical fallacy and modern day ego trip. Money has always been the determining factor in "redressing" grievances and many administrations, not just this current one, have succumbed to the bribes.

It may be an insoluble problem, not unlike the war on drugs. If find a way to remove the need for massive amounts of money to run for office let the people at DEA know; maybe they use the info to curtail the consumer market that drugs satisfy.

It's a crime to allow private companies to sell public air time they license from the public, back to the public, in the form of paid political ads.

One solution would be to ban all political advertising over publicly licensed air or ground lines.

As a former editor/publisher, I can tell you we salivated over the political "season". Those top dollar paid-in-advance ads were almost as much as lucrative as the government mandated "classifieds".


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - the_poochies - 01-09-2006

I am not a registered lobbyist, although I derive a small portion of my income performing similar activities. I also worked for a lobbyist and was a public official.

As long as there are companies and organizations willing to pay lobbyists, there will be lobbyists. Some companies farm out the work and some hire their own. In general, companies or organizations don't want to bother to follow the issues themselves, so the bring in a lobbyist to do it for them.

Unfortunately, it costs so much money to run a political campaign these days, that, unless you are a multimillionaire, you will have to spend much of your time raising money. And therein lies the slippery slope of relying on lobbyists. Well-meaning restrictions on fundraising, the so-called campaign finance "reform," is just making it harder for middle-class people to afford to run for office.

For better or worse, such activity is protected by the First Amendment. Heck, if all of you want to hire me as the Macresource government affairs specialist, I'd be happy to oblige. ;-)


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - brofoski - 01-09-2006

I knew a guy in college who's father was a lobbyist. His father was basically paid to party. It was pretty fun when he'd come to town with his credit card, though.


Re: In all seriousness, is there any reason for lobbyists? - Jimmypoo - 01-10-2006

I'm not a lobbyist, but I play one on the forum.

I'm actually a candidate.