For Matt and Richard: How's our gov't doin'?

So Damn Much Money (eBook)

By Robert G. Kaiser

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Related Editions eBook (1/2009): $13.99 Hardcover (1/2009): $27.95 Paperback (2/2010): $16.95 More...

Description

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With a New Foreword

In So Damn Much Money, veteran Washington Post editor and correspondent Robert Kaiser gives a detailed account of how the boom in political lobbying since the 1970s has shaped American politics by empowering special interests, undermining effective legislation, and discouraging the country’s best citizens from serving in office. Kaiser traces this dramatic change in our political system through the colorful story of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, one of Washington’s most successful lobbyists. Superbly told, it’s an illuminating dissection of a political system badly in need of reform.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author

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Robert G. Kaiser, with The Washington Post since 1963, has covered Congress, the White House, and national politics; reported from abroad as the Post’s correspondent in Saigon and Moscow; served as the paper’s national editor and managing editor; and is now associate editor and senior correspondent. He has written for Esquire, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Review of Books, and is the author or coauthor of six books, including Russia: The People and the Power.He has received awards from both the Overseas Press Club and the National Press Club. He lives in the town where he was born: Washington, D.C.

Praise for So Damn Much Money…

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“With bold insight and telling detail, Robert G. Kaiser raises the curtain on Washington to reveal a tragic drama in which money triumphs over principle. Here, in a single book, is the reason why our politics must be transformed.”
-Robert B. Reich, former secretary of labor

“Bob Kaiser has written the real story of the breakdown of our political system. In the pages of this enormously important book, we can also glimpse a path toward reform–as a new president and Congress take office.”
-Carl Bernstein

“With the keen eye of a novelist and the precision of a social anthropologist, Bob Kaiser ventures deep into the alluring if soulless world of the archetypal Washington lobbyist and returns with a vivid and unforgettable story. In some ways, So Damn Much Money is the book Kaiser has prepared his entire career to write, and we are all the better for it.”
-David Maraniss, author, First in His Class 

“So Damn Much Money tells you how Washington, D.C., really works. After over 40 years in Washington, Kaiser knows that if leaders lead from convictions and the people wake up to their power as citizens, we can still do great things in America.”
-Senator Bill Bradley

“So Much Damn Money is an accurate and frank description of how lobbyists and money have come to run Washington. It is very much in the spirit of the great muckraking books at the turn of the 20th century.”
-Representative Leon E. Panetta

"A colorful and well-reported saga of one superlobbyist and the web he was able to weave. A very timely book."
-Walter Isaacson, author, Kissinger: A Biography
“Bob Kaiser takes the reader past the clichés and caricatures of Washington, and tells a very human story. He leaves the reader with an understanding of how it is possible that American government has reached a point where it now struggles to meet our most basic challenges. Kaiser calls upon a deep understanding of Washington and a writer’s gift for telling a fascinating but true story. This is an important and compelling book.”
-Senator Chuck Hagel

“So Damn Much Money tells the story of how lobbyists and lobbying have hijacked American government and made Washington into an unexpected venue for getting rich. Well documented and fascinating.”
-Kevin Phillips, author, Bad Money
“Illuminating . . . Kaiser’s narrative skills are formidable. He can make a suspenseful story out of a twenty-five or thirty-year-old dustup over academic earmarks . . . But where So Damn Much Money really stands out is in the chapters that trace the broader trends that Cassidy’s rise represented . . . If the outlines of this squalid story are familiar, the details . . . still have the power to shock, and the corrosive influence of high-powered lobbying is clear.”
-Michael Tomasky, The New York Review of Books

“A timely and important read . . . The American people may not be pushing for reform of the appropriations method or the campaign finance system, but So Damn Much Money will at least show its readers why they should care. Kaiser brilliantly succeeds in illuminating the little-known ways that American policy is made, and how well-placed and well-connected people are able to profit from the holes in the American system.”
-Joshua Spivak, San Francisco Chronicle
“Fascinating . . . This book will help us understand national politics.”
-James Q. Wilson, The Washington Post
“Penetrating . . . Kaiser is right, and so is Barack Obama in his attempt to attenuate the corrosive links between lobbying and government.”
-Norman Ornstein, The New Republic
“Robert G. Kaiser’s new book could not be timelier . . . fascinating and well told.”
-John W. Dean, The Boston Globe
“The biography of Mr. Cassidy is a delight . . . The twists and turns in Mr. Cassidy’s career make for engrossing reading . . . Mr. Kaiser enlightens us when he shares the secrets behind a lobbyist’s success.”
-Matthew Continetti, The Wall Street Journal
“Kaiser knows the terrain . . . His portrayal of the lobbying boom will confirm what you probably already suspect: The craft’s practitioners operate just this side of bribery.”
-Andrew J. Glass, The New Leader

“Unusually good . . . [Kaiser is] an extremely fluent storyteller and an expert finder-outer . . . [So Damn Much Money] is a wonderfully complete and fair-minded account.”
-David Warsh, economicprincipals.com

“Eye-opening, and a key to understand how money works in Washington–for the most part, corruptly.”
-Kirkus
“In-depth and critical . . . Surely, Washington insiders will rush to bookstores to snatch up Kaiser’s detailed book . . . Let’s hope that some of those insiders in the brand-new administration pick upSo Damn Much Money and start addressing the problem.”
-Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Dear Dolores

Dear Dolores,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to the West Blount County Chamber of Commerce last evening, along with the other candidates.

I would say that a fair amount of Kool Aid got passed out, wouldn't you? 

 
That spiel about slipping in term limits (the gentleman said 10 years for Representatives and 12 years for Senators, right?), and banning lobbying by retired Congressmen, that sure was heady brew.

 
Ah, well, whaddya gonna do. Hope always springs eternal.

 
Washington has nothing to worry about from the Alabama 6th Congressional district. It will be true blue to business as usual.

Yours kindly,
Rob Shattuck

Open letter to Representative DeMarco

Dear Paul,

The  first words out of your mouth in your first TV ad (after you say your name) are, "Do you want to change Washington?  Here's how."

Paul, if you would please, could you kindly explain to the voters why they should consider you any less fatuous than Dr. Mathis (see Dr. Mathis is fatuous and stupid)?

Look, Paul, Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig may be a crackpot with his proposed "moonshot" to change the way Washington works.  And I may be a crackpot with my National Battle Plan.

But jeez, Paul, can you just please not be so stupidly fatuous with the voters?

With kind regards,
Rob

Would Gary Palmer please comment?

Quin Hillyer's endorsement of Gary Palmer has informed me about qualifications of Gary which I did not previously know.

I think I am raising very important issues, and making very serious charges, that, in Washington DC, there is NOT government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and further the causes of that condition are also causes of Congress being dysfunctional and not able to do its job properly for the American people.

Depending on how valid and consequential my charges are, they potentially overwhelm the importance that Quin Hillyer thinks he discerns in the Alabama 6th Congressional district race and in Gary's candidacy.

I respectfully request Gary to send me an email in which he comments on the charges I am making in my campaign, which I think are very serious charges for the American people.

Quin Hillyer endorsement of Gary Palmer

[from National Review Online http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375677/congressional-candidate-year-quin-hillyer]

APRIL 14, 2014 4:00 AM

Congressional Candidate of the Year 
Alabama’s Gary Palmer is everything conservatives need. 

By Quin Hillyer

Most national conservatives are missing the single most important U.S. House race in the country. From Alabama’s sixth district, near Birmingham, veteran think-tank workhorse Gary Palmer could immediately, even as a freshman, be a conservative congressional superstar.

Palmer is not just the founder and longtime president of the Alabama Policy Institute (API), but effectively is the dean of the entire alliance of tremendously successful think tanks known as the State Policy Network (SPN). His quarter century in the conservative vineyards gives Palmer not just unassailable credentials as a full-spectrum conservative, but also the policy chops, procedural knowledge, and political skills to hit the Capitol grounds sprinting as an advocate, legislator, and leader.

The sixth-district seat will be open due to the retirement of eleven-term representative Spencer Bachus, an institutionalist conservative ideologically in tune with his overwhelmingly Republican and conservative, but not hard-right, constituency. The seven-way Republican primary, full of political heavy hitters, already is exploding Alabama records for U.S. House fundraising. Two of Palmer’s opponents are state legislators, one is a recent tea-party activist, and one was chairman of the Business Council of Alabama — but for committed conservatives, this is a race in which the names of the others should not even be important. When one candidate has proven himself as long and as well as Palmer has, there should be no other choice.

Palmer’s background is far from that of the typical policy wonk. He grew up poor, in a house his father built with his own hands, and was the first one in his family to attend college. Although he had not played a single down of high-school football, Palmer tried out for Bear Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide as a walk-on — and made the team.

“I was called into Coach Bryant’s office suite,” he remembers, “and I had to wait outside his office while he talked on the phone to [Texas coach] Darrell Royal, one legend talking to another; it made me so nervous. But then Coach called me in and said he was gonna dress me out for the team, that he was proud of me, that I had worked hard and done a good job. It was worth everything I ever did at college to hear Coach Bryant tell me I had done a good job.”

Palmer never actually saw any action for the Tide varsity, but he graduated in 1977 with a B.S. in Operations Management. Twelve years followed as a financial-side project manager for two major international engineering firms, including one in which Palmer received security clearances for work for the federal departments of Defense and Energy.

Yet, he says, he felt something was missing. Palmer had a radio at his engineering-firm desk, and he would listen at 7 a.m. to conservative Christian leader James Dobson. In 1989 he heard Dobson talk about a four-week course in Christian counseling sponsored by Dobson’s Focus on the Family and, despite having no obviously relevant background, he applied, with many hundreds of others, for one of the 25 spots. He said he still doesn’t know why his application made the cut, but suddenly he found himself at a conference in California:

While I was out there, people kept telling me that I wasn’t there just for that program, that I was called for leadership. The last day, one of their vice presidents asked me for names of contacts in Alabama; he wanted to find somebody to set up one of these state-based public policy groups — and I knew immediately that’s what I was supposed to do. I went home, called him back the next week to ask how to set something up, and within six weeks we were incorporated. Even though I had never done anything remotely political in my life, we got it started and within a year and a half we were considered one of the model organizations.

When the Heritage Foundation helped organize the state policy groups into the new, national SPN in 1992, Palmer immediately found himself on the national board and, fairly soon, as SPN chairman for two years. What began as a network of just 12 think tanks now numbers 65, with at least one in each of the 50 states.

SPN president Tracie Sharp, commenting not on his candidacy but on his API work, lauded Palmer for a demonstrated “commitment to the ideas that promote free markets and limited government.” And Kevin Kane, founder (in 2008) and president of Louisiana’s Pelican Institute, calls Palmer “just a terrific guy, and as you know him better, he just impresses you more and more. For me and Pelican, he has served as a role model and inspiration . . . always willing to give his time and share his experiences for people like me who are just getting started.”
In his home state, API has not just provided an invaluable resource for facts and ideas for journalists and political reformers, but has built a remarkable record of seeing its policy initiatives become law. Indeed, when Republicans in the 2010 elections took majorities in both state legislative chambers for the first time ever, they found themselves with what amounted to a ready-made agenda courtesy of Palmer’s long years of work — and, piece by piece, they implemented it.
For 20 years, API had banged the drum for school choice, plowing the political ground and changing minds aplenty. Last year the state finally enacted a sweeping school-scholarship program, combined with school “flexibility” provisions. And for seven years, API had warned about the budget-busting dangers of a particularly generous “special” pension program for state workers. The legislature saved about $60 million a year by eliminating it, following API’s proposal almost to the letter. Successful ethics reforms and campaign-finance reforms — transparency and disclosure, not limits — also tracked the think tank’s longstanding proposals.
But it’s not just state policy that Palmer has mastered. He was an early supporter of current U.S. senator Jeff Sessions, and in 1997 he saw the newly elected Sessions appointed to the Environment and Public Works Committee. Realizing how one-sided much of the day’s public environmental reporting was, Palmer and API produced Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children About the Environment — which, Palmer notes, attracted front-page attention (aghast, of course) from theWashington Post and New York Times. The book became successful enough to require nine printings; it was translated into Spanish for widespread distribution in South and Central America and also was published in Canada and even Turkey.
National leaders have noticed. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal told me that Palmer is “an impressive guy [whose work] has distinguished him nationally as a reliable conservative leader.”
In addition to national and state policy, Palmer has helped municipalities too. Last year Mobile elected the conservative reformist Sandy Stimpson as mayor in an upset. Stimpson’s first big involvement with public policy had come as API’s chairman of the board.
“Gary is so resolute and firm in his convictions that he is not for sale,” Stimpson says. “But he also knows how to find a pathway to solutions that many conservatives can’t find. They complain and they know things aren’t right, but they don’t have the creativity to come up with a pathway to a solution. Gary just seems to find a way to come up with creative alternatives to solve complex problems.”
In Dothan, Ala., Mayor Mike Schmitz took office in 2009 facing an environmental lawsuit involving the city’s sewage system, which threatened to cost millions and take years to fix. Schmitz thought the only solution would be a long-running consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency.
“It was a scary process with the federal government, so I contacted Gary,” Schmitz says. Palmer explained to him a way to get the feds to sign off on an administrative order with federal involvement ending in two years, rather than 20 or 25 for a consent decree, and a cash fine much smaller than what the mayor had feared, by proposing a plan to fix the problem themselves.
“Gary finds solutions,” Schmitz says. “He looks into things at a real deep level. He gave me knowledge no one else was giving me, and in the end I believe it will save millions of dollars for the city.”
With all of these successes in Alabama, then, why did Palmer decide to run for Congress?
“I’ve always believed that to get the nation back on the right course, change would start from the bottom up, not from the top down,” Palmer told me. “The State Policy Network always has been focused on driving what reforms are needed at the state level. The big reforms that have started across the country — welfare reform, school choice, right-to-work — they’ve all started at the state level. But somebody needs to actually take these reforms to the federal level as well. What makes my candidacy unique is that I have networked in every state. I have the credibility to get these groups to work with us to drive the messaging, to get the reforms that are needed.”
And that is what makes this the most important race in the country. There’s a disconnect between the grassroots and congressional Republicans, with far too little coordination between them and far too little knowledge of how to take advantage, in Congress, of the state laboratories of republicanism. There’s certainly far too little knowledge of how to integrate it all.
Palmer understands all this, and he has the speaking ability to publicize it and the perseverance to see it through. If Bear Bryant would let him suit up for the Tide despite never having played a down of high-school football, and if this engineering-firm employee could start a successful state think-tank despite having no background in policy or politics, then Gary Palmer certainly won’t be sidetracked by the enervating wheel-spinning of congressional careerists.
All too often, conservative activists rally to whichever seemingly conservative candidate appears best able to rouse the people, or turn a clever phrase, or play well for the cameras. Too often ignored is the knowledge and skill set needed actually to legislate a conservative agenda. For that job, Gary Palmer is one of the best in the business. National conservatives should be rushing to support him.
— Quin Hillyer is a contributing editor of National Review. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.
Editor’s Note: This piece has been amended since its initial posting.

WERC candidate forum preview

While the candidates will not be told any questions in advance, the below have been outlined as possible subjects of inquiry:

-Immigration

           

? Amnesty/Path to citizenship?

? enforcement of existing laws?

? Fast and Furious?

? Do we need a fence?

-Healthcare

            ? cost of healthcare in Alabama?

? What can be done about people who have lost their insurance due to the ACA?

            ?Is it too late to defund or otherwise reverse Obamacare?  

            ? If Obamacare is the wrong thing, what should we do?

-The Economy/Taxes

            ? Growing Jobs in Alabama?

            ? High school and college students are graduating without a job to go to?

            ? Fair tax/Flat Tax?

            ? How do we address spending and the national debt?

? How can we draw more business to Alabama, especially to the Birmingham area?

            ? do we need to improve our infrastructure in this state?

-Education

            ? how do we make it easier for small business?

            ? the sky rocking cost of a college education?

-World affairs/Military

? What should America do in Russia? (Assuming the Ukraine is still in the news)?

            ? What can we do to relive our dependence of Middle Eastern Oil?

            ? cutting funding for our military

-Congressional Leadership

            ? What do you think Sponsor’s legacy will be? 

            ? Will you support the initiatives that he has championed in the past?

? (Assuming Republicans are again in the majority in the house) who would you support as speaker? 

? How important is working across the aisle?

- Energy/environment

? What should be done about our dependence on energy produced in other countries?

? what can be done to prevent another oil spill along the lines of what happened in 2010 with the deep water Horizon oil spill?

-Social issues

            ? Legalization of medicinal marijuana/Carly’s law.

            ? Abortion?

            ? Same sex unions?

Preview of my answers:

I plan to use my opening statement time to say this:

Congress basically has stopped functioning, and there is no indication when it will resume functioning for the American people. Subjects that will be inquired about today are academic for now, and they should not distract from the priority goal of getting Congress to regain functioning for the American people. I have a plan for accomplishing that, and the other candidates have no suggestions and do not even deign to comment on my contention that Congress has stopped functioning.
Putting that aside, I understand that today's topics are likely to include immigration, energy policy, education, healthcare, the economy, taxes, jobs, the national debt, and national defense and security. I believe that most Americans have the same or very similar desires about these matters, but that the political class in Washington, for its own purposes, seeks to polarize the electorate and that results in impeding average Republicans and average Democrats, as well as average independents, from arriving at compromises where there are disagreements as to particulars. I do not have any pre-set ideas on the various topics that will be inquired about. In casting votes on any of these subjects, I would be guided by the wishes of the residents in the 6th Congressional district.

To social studies teachers in 6th Cong'l district

On Monday at noon, there is going to be, at the Hoover High School, a candidate forum for the 6th Congressional district candidates, sponsored by WERC.

While your students may not be able to attend the forum, WERC will record it and broadcast it on 105-5 at 7 pm Monday evening.

I am one of the candidates, and I am taking the opportunity to give you some "food for thought" in advance.  

I have copied and pasted, onto my campaign website, the issue positions of the other candidates set forth on their respective websites.  You can find these copied and pasted positions of the other candidates at these links:  (i) Rep. DeMarco's issue positions, (ii) Will Brooke candidacy, and (iii) Positions of Beason, Mathis, Palmer and Vignuelle.

I am trying to make sense of the campaigns of the other candidates, and I have started a campaign blog entry entitled MAKING SENSE OF THIS.  It is in draft form at the moment, but I think you will find it thought provoking concerning what this 6th district election campaign is about.

Please pass this information on to other social studies teachers you know in the 6th Congressional district.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Shattuck

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