Republican activists are compiling dossiers of lobbyists to identify which ones are Republicans, which are Democrats, and how they have been making personal contributions to candidates in the past. The idea is to pressure groups looking for largesse in Washington to only hire Republicans for their top spots.
Is that just the goofiest thing you’ve ever heard of? I mean, where do I begin?
Like GOP stonewalling on judicial appointments when it was Clinton in the White House and the Republicans in charge of Congress, this can only backfire into an endless spiral of Partisan Correctness. Is anyone in the GOP thinking of how the Democrats will act the next time they’re on top? Are they so blind to think that the Democrats will never again control Congress? Hell, Democrats own the Senate — will this same data be used to exclude Republican lobbyists from those hallowed halls?
Stupid, stupid, stupid. (And I’d say the same thing if it were the Democrats doing it, which they will.)
Or consider what it really means. Lobbyists come to Congress to lobby for a cause. Now, you’d think that the nature of the cause itself would control whether the GOP (or the Dems) would want to hear from that particular special interest constituency. The political affiliation of the guy sitting there promising Big Contributions in exchange for This Little Piece of Legislation We’d Like to See Passed would seem to be as unimportant as, say, their eye color or what church they go to, if any.
Now, all of the sudden, we have a litmus test. Lobbying groups will have to make sure that they send over GOP glad-handers to visit with GOP pols, and Democratic reps to meet with Democratic pols. Trade groups will be busy firing all their executive heads each time the party politics shift.
Hell, half those folks are former Congressmen themselves, or else worked for Congressmen. Are the pols who are welcoming this data thinking ahead to where they might be working (or getting fired from) in a decade or two?
If someone from the Industrial Widgets Association wants to talk about raising tariffs on imported Widgets, access to Senators, Congressmen, or the President ought not rely on whether the guy or gal gave money to Gore or Bush, but on (if we want to play hardball politics) whether the IWA did.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.