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Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 277 -- Democrats Cozier With Lobbyists Than Republicans.

Culture Of Hypocrisy-

Democrats are staking their 2006 fortunes on their ability to convince voters that there is an unprecedented culture of corruption in Washington today, instigated solely by Republicans.

It's not going to work, because it makes no sense whatsoever, and people know it.

The culture of hypocrisy is alive and well, though. Our friends on the left are engaging in a bit of psychological projection, as well as denial.

It's projection, because the claim is that Republicans only enact legislation if big money (perhaps from a lobbyist) lines their pockets. In other words, Republicans have no principles and just act as coin-operated automatons, serving whichever special interest master puts in the most quarters.

What is so odd about this argument is that the GOP is clearly more of a cohesive ideological and philosophical unit, with some definite exceptions, while the Democratic Party is far more of a hodge-podge amalgamation of contradictory and conflicting special interests.

It's also denial from the Democrats, because they get so much more "big money" than Republicans do. The GOP fundraising advantage comes from lots of relatively small, hard-dollar donations from middle class folks. A thousand here, fifty there, a couple hundred there. Lots of them. And they add up. Republicans also get donations from special interests, to be sure, but these campaign dollars pale in comparison to the special interest money on the other side of the aisle.

Democrats, meanwhile, rely on ridiculous amounts of soft-dollar help from a few ultra-wealthy individuals, funneled through 527 organizations. Money from labor unions and trial lawyers also provide the backbone of the DNC money magnet.

Labor unions:

Okay, so, yeah, unions force their members to give to left-wing causes. Honestly, I am only outraged at this sort of thing commensurate with the level of hypocrisy Democrats display about GOP campaign money.

Lawyers & Lobbyists:

Some people, though, don't view "big trial attorney" money the same way they view lobbyist money. So how about a breakdown of lobbyists, exclusively.

Just Lobbyists:

Indeed, Democrats have zero room for rhetoric on lobbyist money, on soft money, or any other kind of special interest money:

Since the 1990 election cycle, Democrats have accepted more than $53 million from lobbyists while Republicans have taken more than $48 million for their election campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Data provided by the nonpartisan group also shows that when Democrats controlled Congress in the early 1990s, they consistently hauled in more than 70 percent of the town's lobbyist money....

When the Democrats were in charge, they were getting an incredibly higher amount of lobbyist money compared to Republicans," said Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Now that the tables are turned there is parity between the two parties."

Last year, for instance, Republicans took in 55 percent of the lobbyist money, which roughly corresponds to their majority share in Congress.

That's a pretty reasonable argument. Lobbying dollars have obviously gone up substantially in recent years, but it is interesting that the percentages of dollars going to Republicans since the 1994 takeover of Congress are often not even as high as the percentages of Republicans in Congress. For example, the lobbyist money broke down like so:

2004 campaign cycle: 48% Democrats, 52% Republicans.
2002 campaign cycle: 51% Democrats, 49% Republicans.
2000 campaign cycle: 49% Democrats, 51% Republicans.
1998 campaign cycle: 51% Democrats, 49% Republicans.
1996 campaign cycle: 50% Democrats, 50% Republicans.
---***---GOP TAKEOVER---***---
1994 campaign cycle: 75% Democrats, 25% Republicans.
1992 campaign cycle: 70% Democrats, 30% Republicans.
1990 campaign cycle: 74% Democrats, 26% Republicans.

When Democrats ran the place, they took in lobbyist money (not even counting trial lawyer money) in proportions far exceeding their majorities. Now that Republicans run the place, they don't even take in as much cash, relative to their majority status.

Just to be fair to the Democrats, let's look at "big oil," the source of all big money evil if we are to believe Nancy Pelosi and friends:

Oil & Gas:

1. How many Democrats represent oil and gas producing regions (think Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, Oklahoma, California, etc.) in Congress? Probably less than 25%.

2. Notice how small the oil and gas industry's political money footprint is compared to labor unions and trial attorneys.

For that matter, notice how small lobbyist money is in comparison to labor and legal money. The "culture of corruption" assertions from Democrats are hilarious, in that they are clearly projecting their own insecurities about their own "big money" onto the GOP. The large donations the Democrats receive simply dwarf the donations the GOP receives.

Denial is more than a river in Egypt. It's also the source of the "culture of hypocrisy" the Democrats have taken to a whole new level with regards to this "culture of corruption" business.

Source:

The Washington Times & The Center for Responsive Politics.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Health Care Spending WAY Up.

Posted by Will Franklin · 23 February 2006 10:50 AM

Comments

Posted by: christian at February 23, 2006 11:31 AM

Posted by: Hoodlumman at February 23, 2006 12:58 PM

Posted by: Dan Morgan at February 23, 2006 09:31 PM

Posted by: Chief RZ at February 24, 2006 12:20 PM