Look, I’ll freely admit that I’m grateful that Mary Landrieu held one Louisiana’s two Senate seats for the Democrats as long as she did. Considering the corruption the Bayou State is so famous for, she had a clean record. I understand that her state’s economy is heavily reliant on the mineral extraction industry, so I’m a little (not too much) forgiving of her odious record on climate change. She was not a bad senator, at least when compared to most of her colleagues.
But I am getting disgusted by how one senator after another gets lucrative lobbying jobs virtually as soon as they leave office. You can sometimes discern that outgoing senators are angling for these jobs by how they vote. There’s a reason that there is a two-year ban on former senators lobbying the Senate, and the intent is to prevent this kind of corrupting influence. I’d like to see a minimum six-year ban (since a single Senate term is six years) if not a lifetime ban. This is bullshit:
Landrieu said she will join Van Ness Feldman as a senior policy advisor, working closely with another recent hire, former Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the former top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
Former senators are barred from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after the end of their congressional careers. For Landrieu, that means she can’t lobby colleagues until January, 2017. But she can lobby members of the executive branch, and is free to provide Van Ness Feldman clients with strategic advice.
Now, Norm Dicks spent his time in Congress authorizing the invasion of Iraq and using his senior position on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to keep Boeing fat and grease the Military-Industrial machine.
Here’s an idea, Dicks: go get a job that doesn’t peddle death and violence. Enough already!
I think people should start insisting that people who are running for office pledge that they will never lobby Congress after their elected career in DC is over.
