MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on March 22, 2006 at 10:38 am.

In a short editorial today, The New York Times feigns disbelief at the Republicans’ selection of Senator Rick Santorum (R – PA) as their lobbying reform evangelist in Washington:

The political gods had to guffaw when Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was designated by the Republicans to be their headlined champion in the current reform effort to rein in lobbying abuses. In truth, Mr. Santorum had long been the G.O.P.’s eager point man in courting the lobbyists of K Street.

* * *

As Congress drifts through a lobbying debate that leans toward cosmetic evasions, Mr. Santorum has been as avid as ever in wooing power lobbyists. The Washington Post reported that the senator had maintained his elite meetings with special-interest brokers.

It’s shocking, I know.

The GOP has spent the past decade perfecting its government- as-corporate-money-conduit scheme. Since President Bush took office, the number of Washington lobbyists has doubled. Lobbyists now spend $200 million per month to influence federal officials.

In the wake of his implication in the Abramoff scandal and subsequent criminal indictment, Tom DeLay (R - TX) was forced to resign his position as House Majority Leader. The Republican House quickly named as his successor John Boehner (R – OH), who has spent nearly six months on corporate-funded junkets in the past six years and who rents his Washington apartment from a lobbyist.

Republicans’ designation of the host of Tuesday Mornings on K Street as their lobbying reform champion is nothing more than the GOP’s latest attempt to ascertain the limit of America’s incredulity:

Sen. Rick Santorum calls himself the Republican point man on lobbying reform in Washington.

But Santorum’s reform plan doesn’t deal at all with lobbyists running charities on behalf of members of Congress.

Good thing for the Senator, because Team 4 has discovered that’s exactly who’s in charge of his charity, Operation Good Neighbor.

Santorum has been handing out lots of checks from his charity, Operation Good Neighbor, since he formed it in 2001.

* * *

But Santorum’s charity has also put money — $216,000 — into unexplained travel and meetings through 2004.

That’s almost half of the $501,000 donated to community organizations, mostly in Philadelphia.

Who’s doing all that traveling and where are they going? Team 4 asked the charity and the Senator, but they’ve refused to release the records.

* * *

Charles Black is a member of the board of advisers for Operation Good Neighbor, and a federally registered lobbyist with the Washington firm BKSH.

One of his clients is Alcoa, a company that last year received a $1.9 million federal defense contract that Santorum and fellow Sen. Arlen Specter trumpeted in a news release.

Barbara Bonfiglio is treasurer of Operation Good Neighbor. She’s also treasurer of Santorum’s reelection campaign and his political action committee, America’s Foundation. Bonfiglio is a principal in Williams and Jensen, a top Washington lobbying firm.

And Operation Good Neighbor’s executive director is Rob Bickhart, who gets paid a salary by the charity and rent because Operation Good Neighbor is located in the suburban Philadelphia offices of Bickhart’s company, Capitol Resource Group.

Santorum’s re-election campaign and his PAC are also located there and they pay rent, too. And they pay management fees to Capitol resource.

This will continue as long as you allow it, folks. Each time you rush to the polls eager to vote your outrage at the latest GOP-concocted phony wedge issue, you play right into their hands.

Filed under: Politics, U.S.