I have a breakfast meeting this morning for work, so today’s Commentary will be short and sweet:
 
I read that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was a participant in the Congressional hearing last week in San Diego County on the illegal immigration issue.  I reached out to him to see if he would be willing to pen something for FR readers on his take on how that hearing went.  He gladly stepped up to the plate and it is the main feature column on today’s main page.
 
Imagine this for just a second.  You work (at government wages) for a Congressman in Washington, who happens to be a big-cheese on the Appropriations (read: spending of your tax dollars) Committee.  You then leave the Congressman’s office and become a partner in a big lobbying practice.  Of course, what is the ‘specialty’ of the lobbying firm?  You guessed it, bringing home the ‘pork’ via the Appropriations Committee.  As a lobbying, you successfully advocate that your clients get tens of millions in tax dollars for their projects, and in return, the staffer-turned-lobbyist makes millions.  Then the Congressman for whom he works becomes Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and so this staffer leaves his high-stakes lobbying practice to go back into government ‘austerity’ working for the Congressman for mere public-sector wages.  Noble, right?  Oh, I forgot to mention that on the way out the door, his partners ‘buy out’ this staffer of his part of their little business for a couple of million more in cash.  You can’t make this stuff up.  I didn’t.  Read it on the main page.

**There is more – click the link**

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.