IN DEFENSE OF THE K STREET PROJECT
By Chuck Muth (01/23/06)
When it comes to "inside baseball," you can't get much more inside than the
current brouhaha over the now-infamous "K Street Project" run by longtime
conservative activist Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform - which is
actually located on L Street, not K Street. "K Street" refers to the
corridor of fancy high-rise office buildings in Washington, DC, which are
populated with Gucci-wearing lobbyists of every make, size, shape and
fashion. K Street is to the federal government what Wall Street is to
financial markets.
Washington pundits, the mainstream media, Democrats and liberal political
activists are all over the K Street Project in light of the Jack Abramoff
lobbying scandal. Even some Republicans are calling for an end of the
project. But as with so many matters coming from inside the Beltway, these
folks either don't know what they're talking about or are intentionally
misrepresenting the facts in pursuit of political advantage (we're
shocked!).
For conservatives, all you probably really need to know about the K Street
Project is that Democrats and the wingnuts over at MoveOn.org are having a
cow over it and want it killed. For example, Democrat Bob Casey, who is
challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania this year,
rips the K Street Project as a program "to allow loyal Republicans to jump
back and forth from congressional offices to powerful positions in lobbying
firms and trade associations." He claims the K Street Project "ensures
one-party rule in the lobbying community and solidifies the special
interests' influence in the legislative process."
So if the K Street Project is killed, who wins? The Left. That alone is
reason enough to rise to its defense.
But let's look at the facts anyway.
The K Street Project is "non-partisan research of political affiliation,
employment background, and political donations of members in Washington DC's
premier lobbying firms, trade associations, and industries." In other
words, it's purely and simply a research tool. How someone uses that
research is another matter altogether. But pure research, in and of itself,
is nothing the government should be using its power to shut down.
That being said, the reason for the K Street Project is simple. It came
about after 1994, when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of
Representatives for the first time in 40 long, LONG years. And during those
40 long years, Democrats "demanded that businesses contribute money to their
candidates and hire their former congressional staffers and retiring
politicians in order to assure 'access.'" This presented a huge problem in
that the people hired by the business community "owed their loyalty to their
former employers and often did not agree with the positions of the companies
that hired them."
Put another way, businesses were coerced into hiring former Democrat
staffers by current Democrat incumbents to lobby on behalf of business for
pro-business legislation which neither the former staffers nor the current
incumbents favored. No wonder businesses continued to get hammered during
the 40 Year Reign of Liberal Terror.
Because Democrats controlled the government, they could pressure the
business community to hire people who had spent their entire lives
"regulating, taxing and expanding government" and who "didn't even
understand the goals of businesses that simply wished to be left alone" by
government.
But once the Democrat choke-hold on Congress was released after the 1994
elections, Norquist created the K Street Project to "advise companies and
trade associations to hire men and women who understand free-market
economics, who support their principled positions for free trade, against
tort law abuse, and for lower and more transparent taxation."
In other words, folks who had been forced to hire folks who didn't share
their free-market, limited-government points of view were being encouraged
to hire folks who DID to lobby the new majority on Capitol Hill who also
shared the same philosophy.
To further make this common sense point, the K Street Project points out
that "labor unions have always hired men and women who share the goals and
values of the labor unions. They do not hire conservatives or Republicans
to gain access when Republicans win the White House or Congress. They
wisely hire men and women who agree with their goals and values."
There is nothing sinister about the K Street Project. The problem the Left
and the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) have with it is that
Republicans are using it effectively while their party is in power. And
when the day comes when the Republicans blow it (and they will) and the
Democrats return to power, you can bet your bottom dollar the Democrats will
come up with their own version of the K Street Project and do their level
best to purge the lobbying community of conservative Republicans. It's just
the way the game is played in your nation's capital. It's always been that
way. And it always will.
Illegal? No. Cynical? Maybe. Realistic? Definitely. To the victor goes
the spoils. As for the losers, let them eat cake.
Copyright 2006 Chuck Muth. All rights reserved.
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