Foxes, Henhouses, etc.

We're used to seeing a lot of stories copied from wire services or bigger newspapers in the pages of the Post and the News. So it is good to see the Post actually get out there and write a big story about the Bush administration's penchant for turning industry lobbyists into regulators of the industries on whose behalf they have lobbied:

Among the advocates-turned-regulators are a former meat-industry lobbyist who helps decide how meat is labeled; a former drug-company lobbyist who influences prescription-drug policies; a former energy lobbyist who, while still accepting payments for bringing clients into his old lobbying firm, helps determine how much of the West those former clients can use for oil and gas drilling.

In case you are wondering, no, this isn't something that every president does:

As president, Bill Clinton peppered the federal bureaucracy with Democratic state officials, lawyers and advocates from various environmental or public-interest groups.

Only a handful of registered lobbyists worked for Clinton, however.

Bush's embrace of lobbyists marks a key difference because it allows "those who are affected by the regulations to determine what the ground rules should be," said David Cohen, co-director of the Advocacy Institute, which helps teach nonprofits how to lobby in Washington.

While previous Republican presidents hired lobbyists, "the Bush administration has made it rise in geometric proportions," Cohen said, meaning Bush is "capturing the instruments of government and using them for the ends" that favor Bush's political supporters.

You might wonder what does this matter, when it looks like the fall election is simply going to be a referendum on Bush's failed Iraq policy. Well, aside from the fact that a lot of people actually care whether the government is fairly carrying out the policies established by Congress in legislation, I think this story actually captures something that is part of a larger trend in the administration. Bush wants to have people work for him that tell him what he wants to hear. And an administration of yes-people is going to end up botching lots of things, foreign and domestic.

Comments

[Linkmeister]

Scully I knew about, and the FDA's mad cow problem I knew about; the others were new. Thanks.