Sunday, May 08, 2005
Does Anybody Check the Lobbyist Register?
Classic Washington regulation: Lobbyists must "register" but there doesn't appear to be an easy way to check that register:
I also find it difficult to believe our Congresscritters are so naive as to blindly trust a lobbyist's unsupported word.
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Lobbyist Paid by Pakistan Led U.S. Delegation ThereEasy enough to design a database to hold all this data - I could design one myself for about $10,000 total and I'm not much of a database designer.
By PHILIP SHENON and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: May 8, 2005
WASHINGTON, May 7 - Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of a federal corruption investigation, led a Congressional delegation to Pakistan in 1997 but failed to tell the group's sponsor or the lawmakers that he was a registered lobbyist for the Pakistani government, according to the sponsor and the two House members on the trip.
"I wish I'd known that he had a bias that way," said Representative Michael R. McNulty, Democrat of New York, who was on the trip. Gregg Hilton, whose nonprofit organization, the National Security Caucus Foundation, sponsored the trip for Mr. McNulty and Representative Howard Coble, said he felt "deceived" by Mr. Abramoff.
I also find it difficult to believe our Congresscritters are so naive as to blindly trust a lobbyist's unsupported word.
