How To Win Friends And Peddle Influence

Hells bells!! There's no time for ethics when there's money to be made. NYTimes (07.15.06):

"Representative John A. Boehner won the job of House majority leader amid a post-Abramoff clamor for an overhaul of lobbying and ethics rules. But nearly six months later, the changes are still tied up in Congress. And far from trying to put the brakes on lobbyists and the money they channel into Republican coffers, Mr. Boehner, who has portrayed his ties to Washington lobbyists as something to be proud of, has stepped on the gas." New House Majority Leader Keeps Old Ties to Lobbyists

John is an in-your-face sort of guy. "He has been holding fund-raisers at lobbyists’ offices, flying to political events on corporate planes and staying at a golf resort with a business group that has a direct stake in issues before Congress." A protection racket by any other name. "Tapping a rich vein of longstanding relationships with lobbyists and their corporate clients, Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has raised campaign contributions at a rate of about $10,000 a day since February, surpassing the pace set by former Representative Tom DeLay after he became majority leader in 2002, a review of federal filings shows." Sweet Jesus. The man's out-DeLayed DeLay? "His fund-raising pace is roughly twice what it was before he became majority leader in February; in April his two federal committees took in $334,500 from political action committees, a monthly take that Mr. DeLay did not match for more than two years after the elections in 2002." There is so much more. Go read the article. Oh, and Boehner is pronounced "bay-ner". In case you were wondering.