[Mb-civic] A Growing Wariness About Money in Politics

[William Swiggard]

A Growing Wariness About Money in Politics

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 29, 2005; A01

For several years now, corporations and other wealthy interests have 
made ever-larger campaign contributions, gifts and sponsored trips part 
of the culture of Capitol Hill. But now, with fresh guilty pleas by a 
lawmaker and a public relations executive, federal prosecutors -- and 
perhaps average voters -- may be concluding that the commingling of 
money and politics has gone too far.

After years in which big-dollar dealings have come to dominate the 
interaction between lobbyists and lawmakers, both sides are now facing 
what could be a wave of prosecutions in the courts and an uprising at 
the ballot box. Extreme examples of the new business-as-usual are no 
longer tolerated.

Republicans, who control the White House and Congress, are most 
vulnerable to this wave. But pollsters say that voters think less of 
both political parties the more prominent the issue of corruption in 
Washington becomes, and that incumbents generally could feel the heat of 
citizen outrage if the two latest guilty pleas multiply in coming months.

No fewer than seven lawmakers, including a Democrat, have been indicted, 
have pleaded guilty or are under investigation for improper conduct such 
as conspiracy, securities fraud and improper campaign donations. 
Congress's approval ratings have fallen off the table, in some measure 
because of headlines about these scandals.

"The indictments and the investigations have strengthened the feeling 
that people have that in fact there's too much money in Washington and 
that the money is being used to influence official decisions," said 
William McInturff, a Republican pollster with Public Opinion Strategies. 
"Polls show that neither party is held in high regard."

The latest court case came yesterday in San Diego when Rep. Randy "Duke" 
Cunningham (R-Calif.) wept openly after pleading guilty to tax evasion 
and conspiracy. His plea bargain came less than a week after public 
relations executive Michael Scanlon coolly admitted his role in a 
conspiracy to try to bribe a congressman.

Members of Congress, lawyers and pollsters recognize that both events 
taken together could signal the start of a cyclical ritual in the 
nation's capital: the moment when lawmakers and outsiders are widely 
seen as getting too cozy with each other and face a public backlash -- 
and legal repercussions -- as a result.

"I've been in town for 30 years, and it seems that every 10 years or so 
there is an episode of this type," said Jan W. Baran, a Republican 
ethics lawyer at Wiley Rein & Fielding. "We clearly are at that period now."

"It's gotten to a level that it can't be ignored anymore," agreed 
Stanley M. Brand, a criminal defense lawyer at Brand & Frulla who used 
to work for Democrats in Congress.

The worst of the blowback, both legal and electoral, could be blunted if 
ongoing probes turn up little or nothing. Indeed, some of the 
investigations are in the early stages and may take months or years to 
resolve. In addition, experts say that the most prominent cases are 
aberrational or else there would be even more investigations and 
indictments than there are.

Yet the activities under scrutiny can also be viewed as logical 
extensions of actions that once were rare but over time have become 
commonplace: massive political fundraising, freewheeling private travel 
given to lawmakers by groups interested in legislation, and the 
bestowing of other gifts and benefits on government officials by lobbyists.

As the Scanlon case demonstrates, the extent of this favor-buying has 
gone so far that the Justice Department is no longer deterred from 
bringing charges even if the gifts fall within Congress's gift-giving 
limits or are below campaign finance maximums. "It doesn't matter," 
Brand said. Charges could come, he said, if "anything of value is given 
to a public official that can be linked to an official act."

Scanlon was a partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and they are under 
investigation for allegedly improperly extracting $82 million from 
Indian tribes. Scanlon has agreed to return $19 million and is 
cooperating with authorities, who have broadened their inquiries to 
include at least half a dozen lawmakers, some lawmakers' spouses and 
several aides-turned-lobbyists, lawyers involved in the case have said.

Prosecutors have told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and his 
former chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case 
against them, The Washington Post has reported. About 40 investigators 
and prosecutors are also looking into the activities of several 
lawmakers, including Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Rep. John T. Doolittle 
(R-Calif.) and former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R), who is facing 
unrelated campaign finance charges in his home state of Texas. Burns, 
Doolittle and DeLay have denied any wrongdoing.

The Post has also reported that investigators are gathering information 
about Abramoff's hiring of several congressional spouses, including 
DeLay's wife, Christine, who worked from 1998 to 2002 with a lobbying 
firm run by former DeLay staffers, and Doolittle's wife, Julie, who 
owned a consulting firm that was hired by Abramoff and his former law 
firm, Greenberg Traurig, to do fundraising for a charity he founded.

Separately, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been 
subpoenaed in connection with probes by the Securities and Exchange 
Commission and the Justice Department into his sale of millions of 
dollars' worth of stock in HCA Inc., the Nashville-based hospital chain 
founded by his father and brother. In yet another case, Rep. William J. 
Jefferson (D-La.) is under investigation by the Justice Department for 
possible violations connected with a telecommunications deal he was 
trying to arrange in Nigeria. Both lawmakers say they did nothing wrong.

At least partly because of public reports of these inquiries, voters' 
feelings about Congress have turned upside down since the start of 2001. 
In January 2001, 59 percent of Americans approved of the way Congress 
was doing its job and 34 percent disapproved, according a Washington 
Post-ABC survey. Earlier this month, the same poll showed that 37 
percent approved and 59 percent disapproved.

In addition, for the first time in its 15-year history, the Wall Street 
Journal-NBC poll this year showed that the public's negative feelings 
exceeded its positive feelings about both political parties at the same 
time. "These are cautionary notes that are affecting both parties' 
political standing," McInturff said.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112801697.html?referrer=email
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