Word: lobbyists
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...tops on aspirin bottles. A single clause tucked away in the Federal Register of regulations (this year's version has already grown to a mountainous 32,000 pages) can put a small-town manufacturer out of business or rejuvenate an industry that was on the brink of bankruptcy. The lobbyist who gets the clause removed, or puts it in, can be worth his salary for 100 lifetimes. The very magnitude of federal spending?about $565 billion this year?reflects the stakes involved as competing groups try to get what they consider their fair share, or more...
...which the adroit spider lobbyist has cunningly woven for him?" But bribes were not ignored. By one estimate, at least $200,000 of the $7.2 million spent by the U.S. to buy Alaska in 1867 ended up in the pockets of Congressmen. Pennsylvania Republican Boss Simon Cameron, who served briefly and profitably as Lincoln's Secretary of War, summed up the financial ethics of the period: "An honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought...
There may always be some members of Congress who can be seduced to trade their votes for bribes or women. The Korea lobby scandal is evidence of the corruption that may always endanger the delicate relationship between the lobbyist and the lobbied. Yet until the recent reforms in Congress, the modern lobbyist's most effective tactic was to concentrate on the committees where the vital decisions were made. A few decades ago, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Lobbyist Walter Mason helped labor's cause by getting Pennsylvania Republican Carroll Kearns so drunk on the nights before key meetings of the House Education...
More recently, Railroad Lobbyist Pat Matthews cultivated a rewarding friendship with former House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills. Matthews had a network of railroad men who knew their home Congressmen intimately. Whenever the secretive Mills wanted a quick head count of the House on any issue, he flashed the word to Matthews. Within a single afternoon, back would come a surprisingly accurate count, and Mills could plot his strategy. In exchange, clauses benefiting railroads readily found their way into legislation from Mills' committee...
...grease it like that any more," observes Michael Cole, chief lobbyist for Common Cause. "You don't have Ways and Means wired because you're a friend of Wilbur Mills." Or, more currently, Chairman Al Ullman, whose control over Ways and Means is greatly diminished. A decade ago, the A.F.L.-C.l.O.'s skilled lobbyist Andrew Biemiller would figure that any clear labor issue had roughly 180 votes for it and the same number against it. He and his aides had only to work on about 75 Congressmen, whom they rated as "leaners," for or against them or so uncertain...