Mark Hinkle points out Obama is caught in a bit of a scandal over his pledge not to take campaign money from pullpeddlers. Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid. Hinkle muses it's unfortunate that the president has added one more to his pile of broken promises. But it's not at all surprising. American government has far too much power and money at its disposal. The inevitable consequence is that businesses, organizations, and individuals will work very hard to guide that power and money in their own favor. In fact, it often seems like rabblerousers intentionally create incentives for people to try to bribe them.

Hinkle notes businesses especially will fight for more corporate welfare, and also for regulations that stifle potential competitors. What choice do they have? If they don't fight for those special government favors, then someone else will, which will put them at an increasing disadvantage, and might drive them out of business. http://venitism.blogspot.com

Over the last ten years, companies that lobbied heavily had a much bigger increase in stock value than those that didn't. Executives might conclude that if you're not lobbying, you're ripping off your shareholders! And of course, these entities that stand to benefit from government favors will work hard and spend hard to get friendly politicians elected.

Hinkle cautions that some people feel that massive campaign finance regulations will stop this unholy bargaining. It won't. When the dust settles, campaign finance restrictions usually just make life easier for incumbents and harder for challengers. Libertarians know that only too well.

Hinkle admits lobbying isn't essentially a bad thing. It's an expression of our right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. It provides information to politicians. But when politicians get in the habit of handing out favors, you can bet everyone is going to run up to the trough. Throw them all out!

Hinkle asserts the only way to reduce the power of pullpeddlers is to reduce the power of government. That choice rests with the voters. If voters keep electing Democrats and Republicans, then the power of government and pullpeddlers will continue to grow. If voters start electing Libertarians, things will change.

Gingrich got two million dollars in fees from Freddie Mac. Gingrich said he gave strategic advice to the mortgage giant. Gingrich also arranged meetings for companies to present their work to federal officials. Under federal law, those kinds of meetings are important because lobbying activity is defined as contacts with a government official and any advice or work connected with those contacts. But there are many exceptions, such as a request for a meeting, that do not trigger the law. There are many people lobbying who should register but do not because of the stigma surrounding the profession or the administrative burden. The number of registered federal government lobbyists is 15,000.

Index on Censorship points out foreign governments are paying for MPs to enjoy five-star accommodation on trips euphemistically called fact-finding missions. The same regimes hire parliamentarians whom the electorate have booted out, on large salaries, to lobby their former colleagues. The six-figure salaries regularly used by lobbying firms to gain access to parliamentarians across Occident are impossible for us to match. The degeneracy of the lobbying trade is often staggering.

Since Index on Censorship began its campaign on this issue, it has been approached behind the scenes; one young lobbyist told Index on Censorship that the worse the client, the more fun it becomes. Lobbying is often dull work, dealing with the minutiae of lightbulb regulations: at least working for a foreign regime is intellectually challenging. Lobbying firm are prepared to take any regime as a client. But many times the go-betweens want a cut of the contract in cash, in a suitcase.

Whereas once authoritarian regimes would have used their foreign ministries to spin their message, these governments now want the best public relations and lobbying teams money can buy. Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others are leading their lobbying operations from Washington, New York, London, Berlin, and Brussels. The opaque lobbying of MPs on behalf of foreign governments is corrupting our politics. The kleptocrats' assertions that all parties are being treated equally is harder to swallow in light of the recent cash for access revelations and the myriad spins for despots. http://venitism.blogspot.com

• New Members 74