Editorial in the Arizona Republic

On Thursday, The Arizona Republic had a very fine editorial on the larger implications of the growing scandals in Washington. Here's some selected parts:

There is a very big scandal brewing today in Washington. But it is only secondarily about specific acts of bribery and corruption. The great political scandal, maybe of our age, lies in the answer to this question:

When did citizens of the United States stop being represented by the men and women elected to Congress and when did their true representatives become hired-gun lobbyists like Abramoff?

The Abramoff scandal is certainly sleazy enough.

A megalomaniac wheeler-dealer with sterling Republican Party connections, Abramoff earlier this week cut a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that appears certain to enwrap a great many congressional power brokers. Reputations are going to be sullied. Lawmakers with campaign contributions tied to Abramoff can't seem to fling the money from their coffers far enough or fast enough.

(snip)

Office-holders may end up stepping down. Some may even find themselves staring down the barrel of bribery indictments. It is going to get very ugly this year along the Potomac.

But the real scandal is hardly limited to one oily lobbyist and a handful of members of Congress with their hands out. Or even a score of congressional members, if it comes to that. What may become the true scandal of our day is the broad-scale evolution of power out of the hands of elected people and into the hands of countless lobbyists and behind-the-scenes power brokers.

Late last month, former Arizona Republic investigative reporter Jerry Kammer, now with Copley News Service, wrote about the astonishing new nexus between the practice of "earmarking" - designating congressional spending for specific projects, also known as "pork" - and the explosion of lobbyists seeking such earmarks.

Kammer's story is essential reading for anyone concerned about whether the congressional appropriations process has morphed into something very much like bribery.

In 1982, Congress included 12 "earmarked" projects in its appropriations. By 1998, there were 2,000 of them worth $10.6 billion, as reported by Kammer. In 2004, that number had tripled to 15,584 earmarks worth $32.7 billion.

(snip)

The federal budget bloats with bridges to nowhere. Tiny colleges in California become superpowers of government-funded research - not because of the brilliance of their work but because they fortuitously hire a potent lobbyist with close ties to a powerful lawmaker.

And, most pernicious of all, lawmakers start forgetting whom it is they work for.

...whom it is they work for. Lincoln thought he knew who it is elected officials work for and it was a pretty good answer. We need to be careful that it isn't the American people who are forgetting.