Republicans and lobbyists and the CD7 Race.

Republicans seem to have an interesting view of lobbyists. There have been many of them that have taken illegal money from lobbyists and have recently gotten busted for it. Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney spring to mind. All three are Republican congressmen who have been indicted and one of whom has resigned and is going to jail. And at least one of the other two will be going to jail as well. Even some of our own Colorado Republican congresspeople have involvement with them. Bob Beauprez, Marylin Musgrave, I'm looking at you. Also, one Rick O'Donnell, our candidate for congress in CD7 has had some entanglements with lobbyists. See my last blog post, although this ought to refresh your memory:

Doug Benevento, who worked to approve the amendment to Deer Trail’s license while working for the Owens Administration, is a significant contributor to Rick O’Donnell and worked with O’Donnell to organize a widely criticized fundraiser in March of 2006, where the head of the EPA met with numerous lobbyists and companies who had pending issues in front of the EPA in exchange for campaign contributions for O’Donnell.

So, if you're a Republican, it is okay to take money from lobbyists unethically if not illegally and to influence policy in the state and in Washington. On the other hand O'Donnell's Democratic opponent Ed Perlmutter has taken some heat because his wife is a lobbyist. I read a really short Aurora Sentinel and Daily Sun article about Ed's wife being a lobbyist. A GOP political anylist said that it makes him a walking conflict of interest. We can debate about the function of lobbyists in America. One cannot equate at one time being a lobbyist or being related or connected to a lobbyist to having illegal or unethical dealings with lobbyists. I find it interesting that if there is even that small connection, then the Republicans will tar the Democrats with it. However, they refuse to clean house. So who cares that O'Donnell was involved in some shady dealings with lobbyists and is being influenced to call for the expansion of a radioactive waste dump? There's no conflict of interest there. It's bullshit. I think that we are all guilty of some level of hypocrisy, however, not all of us are this aggregious offenders.