John Ashcroft leaves government to become a lobbyist, and with the inherent credibility boost that comes with having once been the Attorney General, he aimed to score clients that were looking to cash in on the Homeland Security bonanza using through the corruption of his contacts within the government. On its face this was a move that most former AGs wouldn’t have made, for the sake of their reputation and the work they did while holding the post, but I’d bet that the sanctity of the Justice system they presided over would have played just as much of a role. Think of how our country would suffer if the Justice Department began to look like Congress and the Military in terms of the conflict of interest prevalent in many post-government occupations, where ability is meaningless compared to access and connections, the ability to grease certain wheels, the knowhow and more importantly the know-Who that comes with being a truly effective and well compensated agent of corruption.
The game Ashcroft chose to play after leaving government has been a part of government since time in memoriam. In developing countries like China, corruption is as much a part of the social order as the law itself, if not moreso. We in America are exposed to corruption in passing for the most part, as headlines on our newspaper once in a while. Most of us do not carry around cash in our pocket every day specifically for bribes that must be paid along the way just to earn a living and put food on the table. It is unlikely that any one of us could be arrested for a crime we did in fact commit, only to be let go after paying off the cops.
Some will say that lobbying the government is a legit expression of a business’s 1st Amendment rights, and that it cannot be compared to the type of corruption I’ve detailed above. For the most part they would be correct, but in the United States today it is more or less the same thing, because of who specifically is doing the lobbying for a business and what that person’s history does to stack the deck against the public and in favor of their client. And so it comes to a question of whether or not the individual changing hats is an honest person with a high amount of integrity. John Ashcroft may be an honest man when being asked questions that don’t require self-reflection, but it is a certainty that the man has zero integrity. While there are many stories out there to back up this assertion, I will stick with one that is playing out currently in Washington DC.
Satelite radio has experienced difficulty since the launch of XM and Sirius, as the market is clearly not ready for competing products at this time. The stock prices of both companies, along with their price to earnings ratios aren’t pretty to look at, and in spite of strong growth in subscribers month to month, the future does not look good if these companies were to remain as competitors in a media market that is as consolidated, unregulated and prepared to kill new competition than its has ever been. And so, the idea for a merger takes shape, and an announcement is made. In walks John Ashcroft.
He approached XM executives with an offer of his consulting and lobbying services, no doubt touting his ability to corrupt the appropriate players in government in getting the merger approved. XM turned him down on his offer. Fast forward to today and it turns out that Ashcroft whored himself out to the organization on the exact opposite side of the merger debate, the National Association of Broadcasters. He has conducted an analysis of why the merger would be bad for customers and has written a letter to current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging him to block the merger in some way. His letters have also been distributed throughout Congress. And so we have the most recent “former” Attorney General simply selling his influence to the highest bidder, while the current one is stammering like an idiot every day about his poor father, protecting the children, amnesia, being a minority, how he can’t remember, etc. As a pair they’re far less sneaky than people give them credit for, as to get anywhere in today’s GOP, unprincipled behavior is a prerequisite.
The lesson for XM Satelite radio is obvious. In the United States of America, when a filthy whore like John Ashcroft stops by to visit and promises to corrupt the government just right for the sake of your pending deal…you’d better hire him! And with that said…Welcome to Moscow! (Source – WSJournalOnline, Radio Ink)
“We in America are exposed to corruption in passing for the most part”
I disagree. I think it’s all around us, but that we don’t necessarily see it as corruption.
Ask any one of the 78% of U.S. students who have admitted to cheating on schoolwork if they considered it “corruption”.
Ask a dentist who “refers” me to a specialist for further x-rays (when there wasn’t any good reason) if he considers that corruption. Was he just being overly cautious? In his defense… I have no proof other than the $200 payment owed to the specialist.
Probably just like the Chinese, we don’t consider our own acts to be as corrupt as the acts of others.
BTW… congratulations on another semester down. So, you have 3 more? When will it be over?
If I don’t suffer from some kind of a nervous breakdown, and manage to pass 2-3 more CLEP tests, I should have the degree in hand by September.
I’m worn out at this point though. Whaaaaaaaa….
I’m thinking of corruption as being separate from the market doing what it is naturally inclined to do. The example you used w/ the medical profession…I look at that differently than the case where elected politicians are being corrupted in order to make something happen.
Honesty is in decline, that’s for sure, but a change in this regard cannot possibly take place without a high standard set at the top.
I wonder if there are any truly uncorrupted politicians? Is it possible to not be influenced by power brokers?
I’d be surprised if Bernie Sanders from Vermont was corrupted in some way. But your point is well taken…and coincides with the story of Eve biting the apple I suppose. To where all politicians are corrupt, but the question is whether they acknowledge it and/or to what degree do they work to control the problem?
I rather like this construct, because it speaks to a rationalization of human nature in a way that religion attempts to achieve, and in identifying those most corrupt who will never admit they have a problem or repent, their vice can be described as sin and communicated in a way that the evangelicals can possibly understand.
What about Dennis Kucinich? He has always seemed like an honest politician. Maybe that is wy e does not get taken seriously.
Kucinich is indeed an honest man, and like Ralph Nader is unreasonable. He has been right about everything up to this point, and his presence in the 2004 campaign was the kind of thing that opened him up to ridicule…I rolled my eyes a few times late in the race, but watching him work on CSPAN in the years since, there’s hardly a negative word I could utter regarding the man. Far less the politician than most, his steady leadership, rowing against the stream for so long, has solidified the thoughts I’ve had concerning his character. Like very few others…perhaps no other in Congress, he will anchor the party for years to come, and NEVER subdue the words he was meant to say…so often the very same words most of his contemporaries are thinking but afraid to speak out loud.