Eleanor Clift Quotes
No one has ever seen a congressman who left office because he didn't get paid enough. On the contrary, many of them spend millions of dollars to get there.... Congressmen do not make good hardship cases.
Eleanor Clift, Journalist, National Public Radio, The Diane Rheem Show, January 6, 1989
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is an important quotation because it was believed by most of the Founding Fathers and the American public until relatively recently. Presidential candidates would not think of publicly campaigning. The view was that anyone who was ambitious for power and authority should not be trusted with it. The idea was first stated by Plato and has been a major view of Western politics since. Many still believe it, but no one has come up with a practical alternative in a large jurisdiction where there is no way to know about the possible candidates without their initiative. Earlier American presidential candidates, although they did not campaign as we know it, got associates to do their campaigning for them. At Presidential nominating conventions, candidates would not even attend. Abraham Lincoln for example never attended the convention at which he got nominated, but he had associates lining up delagates and he was managing their efforts behind the scenes.
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.
Not all members of Congress use the money personally. Some, when they leave office, give it to other Congressmen for their PACs. However, many” take the money and run”.
Eleanor Clift is an American political reporter, television pundit, and author. She is a contributor to MSNBC and blogger for The Daily Beast. She is best known as a regular panelist on the The McLaughlin Group. Clift is a board member at the IWMF (International Women's Media Foundation).
