Brian Moir Quotes
I know that it would not shock you to discover that this isn’t the first time that Congress and the regulatory agencies did not act in the public interest.
Brian Moir, International Communications Association, C-SAPN, Area Code and Phone Number Allocation, March 4, 1998
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
While this is a common complaint in the American political dialogue at the beginning of the 21st century, it is interesting that this was the conclusion of a foreign political scholar studying that period—one who was generally a great admirer of America.
While New York City and a few other jurisdictions—states and local—have more stringent laws and ethical standards for politicians than does Congress and Federal Officials, but most have lower standards. In some of the jurisdictions judges can try cases and rule in favor of a company or wealthy individual who gave the judge the money to campaign with and get elected.
In the beginning of the 21st century some lobbyists were so powerful that they were actually in Congressional committee markups and other closed meetings and writing or helping to write actual legislation. In prior years lobbyists would send notes or make suggestions as to wording, but were not part of the group of Congressmen actually doing the drafting. The Republican majority took this practice so far that they had lobbyists in the committee rooms drafting legislation and refused to allow the minority party members in the meeting. So lobbyists got to draft legislation favorable to the organizations that paid them while elected congressmen were not allowed to participate or even observe who was in the room and what they were doing. Lobbying scandals in 2005 and 2006 began to curtail some of these most egregious practices. Democrats, when they were in the majority sometimes surreptitiously would accept written “language” suggested for laws and then would use the “suggestions” in their draft of the legislation. So the effect and the lack of ethics was often the same but the method more subtle. These unethical practices go back even to Daniel Webster who was regularly paid a monthly bribe to care for the interests of the railroads and he introduced legislation sought by the industry and company that was paying him. At least that overt a practice has been outlawed, but so many others remain.
She was the first Black woman to be elected to Congress and was the first Black woman to actively campaign for the Presidency
implicit in the weak ethics rules of the U.S. House of Representatives
Senator McCain, on the current lobbying scandal, in particular, and the state of the government’s relationship with lobbyists in general.
The George W. Bush administration had a strong penchant for loyalty and would not fire Republican officials who had proved incompetent or unethical. In the midst of a disastrous Iraq War, there was a sex scandal in the House of Representatives whereby a Republican member was making homosexual advances to young pages. The House Republican leadership had tried to cover it up rather than protect the pages. Yet no one was fired even after the Congressman resigned and admitted it.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
