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some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/11/AR2005091101084.html

Katrina Leads a Lobbyist to Reevaluate His Priorities

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 12, 2005; Page A04

Frederick L. Webber, a longtime denizen of Washington's lobbying corridor, showed up at work one day last week and found on his desk a dozen fundraising requests from members of Congress.

He threw them all in the trash.

In a self-described epiphany, Webber, president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, drafted a large check to help families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and decided that an imperative of his vocation -- political giving -- had finally gone too far.

How could lawmakers be asking for money for their reelections, he asked himself, when thousands of Americans were desperate for aid along the Gulf Coast?

Webber told K Street colleagues that radical change is needed in election laws: Donations should be further limited, campaign seasons should be shortened and lawmakers, somehow, should be freed up to do more legislating and less soliciting.

He also made clear that the hurricane's devastation was what prompted his proselytizing. "All of a sudden I asked, 'What are the priorities here?' " Webber said in an interview. "It was an easy decision to make. I couldn't justify making those $500 to $2,500 [campaign] contributions. It just didn't fit."

igotthisguitar · Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 2:35 am Post subject:

I'm wondering if it's for real & not just a crass PR stunt.

Molla.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

I am not sure if it's a PR stunt, I guess I like to believe that Katrina did wake some people up to what's going on in their country.
I do like the idea of limiting the amount of money for political campaigns.
The problem is and always will be one of "secret donations" to secret offshore bank accounts that no one can trace.
They might be able to clean up things on the surface a bit, but I doubt it would change anything in the long run.

Nowhere Man · Joined: 08 Feb 2004

I do find this a bit hard to swallow. Doesn't his lobbyist job pay his salary?

If he's going to throw his proposals in the trash, then isn't he neglecting his actual job? Wouldn't it make more sense, if he feels that way, to quit his job or at least realign his lobbying to fit the statement he's making?

That said, at least he's garnered attention for issues that are rarely brought up and seldom if ever in any serious fashion: