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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Jan. 13, 2006 / 13 Teves, 5766

In search of a leader to clean House — and Senate

By Jack Kelly

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In 1994, Republicans were swept to power in Congress chiefly because of public disgust over a series of scandals involving, mostly, Democrats.


The GOP vowed to change things. But barely a decade later, Republicans in Congress largely have become what they once campaigned against.


Much of the responsibility for this sad state of affairs rests with Rep. Tom Delay of Texas, until last September the House Majority Leader. Rather than seeking to diminish the untoward influence of lobbyists in Washington, Delay strove to replace Democrat lobbyists as the chief influence peddlers with GOP ones.


In Washington D.C. on Jan. 3rd, lobbyist Jack Abramoff pled guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. A day later in Miami, he pled guilty to fraud and conspiracy in his purchase of a fleet of casino boats in Florida.


Mr. Abramoff's principal victims were indian tribes who owned casinos, who paid Mr. Abramoff's firm $82 million to help them obtain gaming licenses, or to prevent rival tribes from getting them.


Mr. Abramoff is a friend of Rep. Delay, and his business partner, Michael Scanlon (who pled guilty earlier) was once Mr. Delay's press secretary.


So maybe Ronnie Earle, the highly partisan Democratic district attorney of Travis County (Austin), Texas, did Republicans a favor when he indicted Rep. Delay on what looks to me like a trumped up charge. GOP rules require a leader to step down if he is indicted.


Mr. Abramoff will get a shorter sentence in exchange for his testimony against Members of Congress, congressional aides, and Interior Department officials who did favors for him.


The only congressman mentioned in the plea agreement is Bob Ney, a Republican from Ohio. The court papers say Rep. Ney helped obtain a visa for the relative of a client; put comments in the Congressional Record supporting Mr. Abramoff's Florida casino bid, and offered legislative language that would have permitted a tribe in Texas to reopen a casino.


If Rep. Ney did these things as an explicit quid pro quo for the gifts and campaign contributions Mr. Abramoff and his clients showered upon him, he committed a crime.


But what is really criminal about Washington is not what is illegal, but what is legal. If the quid pro quo were merely implicit, if Mr. Abramoff was merely buying access and goodwill with his gifts and contributions, then Rep. Ney committed no crime, which is not the same as saying he did nothing wrong.


And if there was no explicit quid pro quo, then Rep. Ney did no more than what nearly every other member of Congress is doing. Our whole system of campaign finance is based on bribery and extortion. Lobbyists don't provide congressmen with campaign funds or golf outings in Scotland out of the goodness of their hearts. They expect something in return. And usually they get it.


Though Mr. Ney was the only Member mentioned in court documents, the Justice department is looking closely at four other lawmakers, the Washington Times reported Wednesday.


Two — Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana and Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona — are Republicans. But the other two are Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee. This will complicate efforts to portray this as solely a Republican scandal, as will the fact that 40 of the 45 Democrats in the senate received campaign contributions from Mr. Abramoff or his clients.


The federal budget is bloated grotesquely by "earmarks" for special interest groups. There will be no solution until we recognize corruption in Washington is systemic and bipartisan. Term limits would help. Those most likely to succumb to the blandishments of lobbyists are those who've been in Washington for quite a while.


But barely disguised bribery will be the rule as long as lawmakers must rely on special interest groups for the bulk of their campaign funds.


Candidates for federal office should be permitted to accept contributions only from people who are registered to vote in the states from which they are seeking election, or from the political party to which they belong. Only when lobbyists can no longer do big favors for our lawmakers will our lawmakers stop doing big favors for lobbyists.

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. Comment by clicking here.

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