Paul Freund Quotes
Campaign contributors are operating vicariously through the power of their purse rather than through the power of their ideas.
Paul Freund, Legal Scholar, Quoted in The Washington Post, January 12, 1997
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
When it came to legislation that affected veterans, the members of Congress were in an all or nothing situation. If there was a bill to extend or improve a benefit for veterans, the member would be classified completely on how he/she voted on the singular issue.
In Lincoln’s age there was a serious ethical debate as to whether it was right for a candidate to use any money at all in a campaign regardless of source.
Hollings who was one of the senior experienced senators was offended by the degree to which the George W. Bush Administration and the Republican leadership had turned to lobbyists to draft legislation and amendments to pending legislation. Lobbyists often have specialized information that members of Congress do not have, so there has been in modern times communications between lobbyists and members of Congress and their staffs. However, during the Bush Presidency the practice reached an extreme where lobbyists would even write the legislative language and give it to the members in whom they had invested by giving them large campaign contributions and many perks. K Street is the fanciest street in Washington DC with some of the most expensive office space. A substantial proportion of the lobbyists have K Street offices, hence the metaphor.
See {640687}. He was then very worried about the influence of money in politics and was willing to risk his own reelection by limiting his contributions. And he was the Republican presidential candidate so his policy was particularly unusual. A century later money in politics had ballooned to a much larger problem as Taft’s action had little or no effect on the overall relationship between money and politics outside of his campaign.
Paul A. Freund was an American jurist and law professor. He taught most of his life at Harvard Law School and is known for his writings on the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of the United States.
