Comment on The Campaign Jungle – NYTimes 11/13

The Campaign Jungle – NYTimes.com.

As the Abramoff interview on 60 Minutes last weekend made quite plain, the corruption has been there for a very long time. But the campaign finance reforms of 1975 and Buckley v. Valeo 1976 legalized the bribery and systemic corruption. The lobbying industry since then and the amount of “access money” spent has grown out of all proportion to the growth of the economy. Indeed it has made the Washington area the wealthiest part of the country. Were it also the commercial capitol, that would be understandable. But it isn’t, and there is something very wrong in that.