Lobbying "Reform" or Reshuffle?

Lobbying reform is the current cry du jour in Washington. Yet Daniel Henninger points out in the following Opinion Journal piece that today's Abramoff scandal was born out of earlier "reforms."

OpinionJournal - Wonder Land: "Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff. Once the hunt's on, some names sound to the scandal born. Tongsun Park, Charles Keating, Elizabeth Ray, Fannie Fox, Susan McDougal. Now comes Jack, the central figure in what Beltway Democrats are trying to build into a bonfire that will burn down Republican control of Congress. Every time someone tells Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid that he, too, took money from Jack's clients, he starts jumping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin yelling, 'This is a Republican scandal!' Harry Reid, Harry Reid. One could get used to that.
Poll after poll says the public thinks both parties are equally corrupt. It depends, of course, on what the meaning of corruption is. If by corrupt you mean lobbyist sleaze, quid pro quo, the pork barrel, earmarks to nowhere and grossing out even the public's generally low expectations, then yes, both parties are equally corrupt.
But it gets worse. Congress legislated the system that now exists. Congress planted the seeds back in the '70s for what is revolting you now with two enactments--the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. Both were marketed as reforms....

Modify the nearly unchecked power of Congress to tax and spend and you will go a long way toward solving the problem.

President Reagan demanded in nearly every State of the Union Address a line item veto to give the President the authority to cancel out pork barrel spending. Yet, Congress continually refused to grant him that authority.

Don't expect Congress to grant President Bush that authority. More likely, this next round of "reforms" will be another complicated shuffle of the deck chairs creating a whole new system that clever lobbyists and members of Congress can exploit.

Oh, and while we are on the subject of corruption, here's a golden oldie:

Click on the chart above and read about Reid's CLAN OF CORRUPTION. It makes the $200,000 pittance that Jack Abramoff LEGALLY gave Republicans look down right stingy.