Political Quotes

“I rise in opposition to what I believe to be a half-hearted and not altogether honest attempt at lobbying reform. It is only half a loaf. Even if it were a completely good lobbying bill, it does not go far enough, and it never will. Yes, it bans meals, dinners, and gifts from lobbyists, but it does not ban meals, gifts, and dinners from corporate representatives back home. Common Cause and The New York Times have editorialized against it. They do not think it goes far enough. So even if we support this bill and it passes, we are still going to catch hell from the newspapers and from the tabloids that want to raise heck with us. If we want to go out and have a dinner or a golf game with a hometown corporate leader, the press is still going to condemn us even if this passes. This bill does not cover the LSO's, the legislative service organizations. We have read lots and lots about abuses by those organizations and the improper contacts they have had with various representatives around the world. There are big abuses. This bill does not do anything about that. The bill does not affect the nonprofit entities and compel folks like Ralph Nader's Public Citizen to disclose their contributors. Just about 2 weeks ago a man from public citizen testified that they do not disclose their contributors, even though more than one person bragged that he's raised $100,000 for them in a day. The bill does not touch executive branch lobbyists or White House consultants.”