GOP revives “culture of corruption”

By J. Kingston Pierce

Will Republican’ts never learn that Americans don’t want their elected representatives to sell their souls to Big Business? That corrupting coziness is part of what lost the GOP its congressional majority in 2008. This comes from The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen:

Congressional Republicans’ affinity for corporate lobbyists is hardly new. When Congress worked on a jobs bill, the GOP huddled with corporate lobbyists. When work on Wall Street reform got underway, the GOP huddled with industry lobbyists. When Congress worked on health care reform, the GOP huddled with insurance lobbyists. When an energy/climate bill started advancing, Republicans huddled with energy lobbyists.

Care to guess who’ll be writing the laws under a GOP majority on the Hill?

This week, however, the ties looked even more unsavory. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee announced that it would co-host an Election Night reception with one of the top lobbying firms in Washington, and corporate donors willing to write big checks could buy all kinds of nice perks.

GOP officials, meanwhile, are trying to argue this isn’t a fundraiser, and that donors to the Election Night event are merely “underwriters” who will help cover the costs of the shindig.

The midterm elections haven’t even been held yet, and the GOP--anticipating gains on Capitol Hill--is already returning to it’s sleazy practices. You can read more here.

(Cross-posted at Limbo.)