Mark “The Decemberist” Schmitt nails it:
Please, Don’t Say “Lobbying Reform”:
This is not a lobbying scandal. It’s a betrayal-of-public-trust scandal. Lobbyists have no power, no influence, until a public servant gives them power. That’s what DeLay and the K Street Project was all about. What they did was to set up a system by which lobbyists who proved their loyalty in various ways, such as taking DeLay and Ney on golf trips to Scotland, could be transformed from supplicants to full partners in government.
Abramoff did lots of terrible things and should go to jail, but never forget that every single criminal and unethical act of his was made possible by a public official. On his own, Abramoff had no power. At another time — say, 1993 — he would have been a joke.
But every time we say “lobbying reform,” we reinforce the idea that it is the lobbyist who is the wrongdoer. Sure, many lobbyists are slimy and aggressive. (Others, in my experience, can be helpful and informative, as long as you understand that they represent only one side of an argument.) But no one forces any legislator or staffer to accept lunches, trips, or favors from a lobbyist. And the reason not to do that is that the legislator risks surrendering some of her power, which is a public trust, to these private interests.
I was thinking about this as well. Abramoff is not the only culpable party here. No one made these corrupt public servants take his graft. They were willing to be bought, and he took them up on it. Criminal, yes, but relatively less so than the creatures who took his money, his trips, the various perks he proffered.
Think the Democratic leadership will take this up and call it what it is? I’m not holding my breath.