National Review: Abramoff is a republican
scandal
The National Review
January 10, 2006
Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona
maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the
"Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the
scandal over savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating on tenuous grounds, just
so not all the senators involved would be Democrats.
The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that
something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), took more
than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan
used Abramoff's skybox! It is true that any Washington influence peddler is
going to spread cash and favors as widely as possible, and 210 members of
Congress have received Abramoff-connected dollars. But this is, in its essence,
a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray it otherwise is a
misdirection.
Abramoff is a Republican who worked closely with two of the country's most
prominent conservative activists, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed. Top aides to
the most important Republican in Congress, Tom DeLay (R., Tex.) were party to
his sleazy schemes. The only people referred to directly in Abramoff's recent
plea agreement are a Republican congressmen and two former Republican
congressional aides. The GOP members can make a case that the scandal reflects
more the way Washington works than the unique perfidy of their party, but even
this is self-defeating, since Republicans run Washington.
Republicans must take the scandal seriously and work to clean up in its
wake. The first step was the permanent ouster of Tom DeLay as House Republican
majority leader, a recognition that he is unfit to lead as long as he is
underneath the Abramoff cloud. The behavior of the right in this matter
contrasts sharply with the left's lickspittle loyalty to Bill Clinton, whose
maintenance in power many liberals put above any of their principles. Next,
Republicans will have to show they can again embrace the spirit of reform that
swept them to power in 1994.
To this end, GOP lawmakers are rushing to introduce lobbying reform.
Anything that increases transparency is welcome. But lobbying reform's
animating pretense is that lawmakers are all upstanding — until they come
under the corruptive spell of lobbyists. In every transaction, however, there
has to be a willing buyer and seller.
There are two deeply rooted sources of corruption in Washington. One is that
many members of Congress believe that they would be making much more than their
$160,000-a-year salaries if they were in some other line of work. This sense is
compounded when they watch their former 30-year-old aides go to work on K
Street for $300,000 a year. This is how someone like Tom DeLay —
otherwise a conviction politician — justifies playing the best golf
courses in the world on someone else's dime and getting special interests to
funnel easy money to his wife.
It will be a sign that Congress has learned something if it bans all
privately funded travel. If a trip is truly educational and necessary, the
public should fund it; if, on the other hand, a member of Congress wants to
enjoy fine resorts, he should quit, practice law (or whatever), and earn the
income to support his desired lifestyle.
The other problem is that Washington makes obscure decisions that enrich
small groups of people. Most everyone in Washington supports making these
decisions because it increases his or her power. But if Congress really wants
to lessen the malign influence of lobbyists, it should reform the inherently
corruptible process whereby the Interior Department recognizes new Native
American tribes so they can mint money by opening casinos, and end the practice
of "earmarking" federal dollars for local and special-interest projects. It's
no accident that Abramoff saw the business potential in both of these
processes.
Of course, making these sort of changes would be painful. That's why it is
tempting for Republicans to look for a John McCain instead.
— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton
Years.
(c) 2006 King Features Syndicate
|