In my last rant on campaign finance as legalized bribery, I neglected to link a good article on the apparent change in attitude at the Department of Justice (I knew I’d seen it somewhere!):
Unlike overhaul efforts in the past, though, which have relied on politicians cleaning up the very system that keeps them in power, the Justice Department’s Abramoff case opens up the possibility of genuine change. Imagine, for instance, if the oil companies and their executives could no longer link their campaign contributions to their interests in energy legislation. Or if trial lawyers couldn’t do the same with tort reform legislation. Robbed of much of their ability to bend the power structure with donations and other gifts, these industries would have less reason to give at all. They’d be forced instead to rely on the persuasiveness of their arguments rather than the power of their pocketbooks.
Let’s hope that’s the end result. Much credit to the folks at DOJ for calling a spade a spade, finally.
