Too much business

By Capt. Fogg  

It's one of those things many Obama supporters hoped he would do, and do quickly. It's also one of those things nobody should have expected him to be able to do given any amount of time. I'm talking about the malignant, corrupting influence of unfettered and unlimited lobbying. Amidst the chorus singing about too much government influence in the oil industry being the culprit in the Gulf oil disaster (along with the president, of course), isn't it time to listen to the quiet voices trying to remind us that it's too much business involvement in government that's corrupting both sectors?

Of course, they're quiet only in comparison, because the volume of noise is directly proportional to the volume of oil bucks and gas bucks and the volume of Republican/corporate money wells pumping away at the opportunity to make even more through more obfuscation and deregulation. If The Washington Post has it right and 3 out of 4 oil and gas lobbyists were formerly part of the federal government, we have to believe that congress isn't going to find fault with a practice that can offer lucrative employment to the departing congressman or the promise of election support that opens the spigot of campaign financing from those industries.

No, I don't see Obama doing much about it. In fact, I don't see us or anyone else doing much about it. We just can't afford to compete.