He seen his opportunities and he took ’em
I will admit to feeling gleeful at the fall of Jack Abramoff, and the likelihood that he’s going to take Tom DeLay down with him. But the extent of the corruption that is being revealed is appalling. You know things are screwed up when I’m agreeing with Newt Gingrich:
"You can’t have a corrupt lobbyist unless you have a corrupt member (of Congress) or a corrupt staff. This was a team effort."
Maybe I’m naive, but I’m actually surprised by the number of people who had their faces in the trough. The charges on which DeLay was indicted in Texas were about gaining political power — laundering contributions to influence state elections in order to control the redistricting process — not about lining his individual pockets. I wouldn’t put anything past this crowd in terms of doing what it takes to stay in power, but I didn’t think they were this blatantly and personally greedy.
And, no, I don’t consider all those sweetheart deals with Halliburton to be evidence of the contrary. Those are what Plunkitt of Tammany Hall would have called "honest graft" — someone’s going to get the contract, so it might as well be your friends. Without defending that practice, for me at least, there’s something qualitatively different — and worse — about trading favors for legislation.
As a federal employee, one of the most frustrating thing about this corruption is that the federal government is deliberately inefficient in order to avoid patronage. The goal of procurement isn’t just to get a good product at a decent price, but to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to be the one to provide it. Businesses routinely go back to the same contractors again and again, building relationships over time — we have to recompete our contracts and start from scratch every couple of years. And don’t get me started on the hiring process.
On December 29th, I was one of the few people at work in my office. My boss asked me to return a call to someone who had left a message asking about eligibility standards for heating assistance programs. I wound up listening to her for 20 minutes as she ranted about unresponsive politicians and how do we change these policies. I pretty much had to say "uh huh" and "I hear you" and "I have some personal opinions on that, Ma’am, but I don’t think it’s my job to share them."
January 6th, 2006 at 1:41 am
what the hell? why are so many lefties hearing Newt talk sense? I found myself agreeing with him a few months ago, too, listening to him talk about getting poor bright city kids to stay in school & do serious work. His proposal: Pay them. I’m also working on & off for a women’s center program that, yes indeedy, gives laptops to poor students. (I proposed we call it NEWT, but nobody thought it was funny.)
January 11th, 2006 at 10:59 am
“…someone’s going to get the contract, so it might as well be your friends. ”
The obvious problems with that are that it leads to a tendency to award the contract despite having better offers, and to be a bit (a lot) lax about making sure one’s friend actually lives up to the contract.