Pork is Good, Just Read the Book
Written by Andrew on November 14th, 2006According to Joseph McCarthy, the cure to what ails the GOP is pork, and lots of it. While Americans are forced to close their small businesses because of overregulation and taxation, we need to make sure K Street lobbyists get a fair shake at our tax dollars. Democrat operative Ross Baker has all of the answers in his book.
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Pork is awesome!!!11!!11! ROTFL LOL!
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“He was a Research Associate at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. before coming to Rutgers.”
Interesting.
“He is a regular contributor to the editorial pages of The Los Angeles Times and Newsday, and his commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, and The Philadelphia Inquirer and is heard on the National Public Radio program “All Things Considered”
No Washington Times editorials? Why aren’t his pieces for the conservative mags listed?
“Professor Baker served on the staffs of Senators Walter F. Mondale, Birch Bayh, and Frank Church, and as a consultant to the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2000, he served as a senior adviser to Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont).”
Hmmmm . . . he seems to support the most liberal of the liberal Democrats expect when he supports Chuck Hagel (R-France) who is the man who defined the RINO lifestyle.
“In 1992, Professor Baker was a Fulbright Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm.”
This is a joke right? The most socialist, liberal country in the world employed this man to study and expound upon International Affairs? Not Robert Baker!
I am shocked, shocked that he thinks lobbyists are essential to the republic!
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“No Washington Times editorials? Why aren’t his pieces for the conservative mags listed?”
All of his contributions to “Chronicles” are in the appendix.
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Professor Baker worked for two Democrats in the Senate and he definitely holds liberal (albeit, reasonable) views, but to say he’s a Democratic operative is a huge huge stretch.
Three more points.
1. You’re making things up when you say I’m in favor of pork, although some specific pork items can be necessary to securing the public good.
2. Demonizing someone can make them more strident on an issue. It won’t do that to me, because I’m really, really stubborn and persistent. But I have no doubt that Arlen Specter has become more liberal since Toomey demonized him in the ‘04 primary.
3. Lobbyists help members of Congress understand issues of importance to specific groups. There are too many examples to list. Let’s say you work for the XBox division at Microsoft and a certain loose regulation would help them reduce chip-making costs. A microsoft lobbyist can help your member understand the factors involved and make an educated decision. And that’s important.
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1.) You are right that certain “pork” projects can be beneficial. It all depends on how you define “pork”. One man’s pork is another man’s vital local project. And that of course is the problem, it is a very slippery slope you get on when you start allocating pork. In the beginning the projects make sense, but after a decade or so of spending ideas like the the “Bridge to Nowhere” get approved. Pork will always exist, but it should be rare, extremely rare and always constitutional.
2.) I can see how this is also true, but that doesn’t mean that Arlen Specter should be supported by conservatives. If he has moved to the left since his election it is only slightly considering he has a long history of liberalism that led to conservatives opposing him in the first place. And yes you really are stubborn and persistent. That can be a great assest if properly developed, it can also be a great detriment if applied to liberally.
3.) Again, you have a point. There will always be interest groups trying to negotiate with congress to help them out on specific issues. Let us distinguish however between a group like the NRA or Planned Parenthood that attempts to convince congress to see the light on “their” issues and a group like the Peanut Farmers of America that sits down and actually writes a bill that “protects” peanut farmers from overseas competition with high tariffs on imported peanuts. Too many of these lobbyists represent corporate interests and trade groups that are simply attempting to protect their peice of the pie from fair competition. This is against the core ideals of the Republican Party and has led to a nationwide backlash against all forms of lobbying.
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We aren’t demonizing lobbying Congress, God knows those men and women don’t know what to do on their own, just the institutionalized bribery represented by the K Street Project.
Arlen Specter wishes he were more liberal these days, but since website like ours made him hold hearings on good judges that hasn’t really happened.
I don’t see how calling someone who has worked as an operative for several left-liberal Democrat Senators makes calling him a Democrat operative a stretch. I understand if he was your teacher and you respect him and his opinions, I’m just trying to give some context to your prescription of his books.