The Washington Post has an article on the contest to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader entitled Lobbying Colors GOP Contest. NPR had a similar story this morning. Because the contest is colored by DeLay’s tainted ties to lobbyists, including indicted “superlobbyist” Jack Abramoff, the stories focused on the lobbying relationships of the two principal candidates, Roy Blunt and John Boehner.
Assisting Phillip Morris is practically a family business for the Blunts:
Just hours after Blunt was named to the House’s third-highest leadership job in 2002, he unsuccessfully tried to insert a measure benefiting Philip Morris into the 475-page bill creating the Department of Homeland Security. Blunt’s ties to the company are thick: He was very close to a company lobbyist, Abigail Perlman, at the time, and married her in 2003. She does not lobby Congress. One of his sons, Andrew B. Blunt, lobbies the Missouri legislature for Philip Morris.
The story gives an example of a Boehner lobbying boner as follows:
Boehner’s most famous act of the sort also involved the tobacco industry: In 1995, he distributed checks from tobacco political action committees to members on the House floor.
The story further reports, “both men have established a web of lobbying connections that touch Abramoff’s fundraising and lobbying machine.”
So, I would suggest that the House go with someone like John Hoestettler as House Majority Leader. Personally, I disagree with just about every policy issue I’ve ever heard Hoestettler discuss, and I certainly hope he loses in the 2006 election. But he doesn’t take PAC money, and I suspect that he’s probably squeaky clean by Congressional standards as far as fiscal corruption goes. Blunt and Boehner just seem like more of the corrupt same-old-same-old in Washington.
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