What's the "Shakedown"?

[SHRED]

Great article here:

The Real Shakedown to Apologize for
Marty KaplanDirector, Norman Lear Center and Professor at the USC Annenberg School
Posted: June 21, 2010 04:04 PM


If Barack Obama's extraction of $20 billion from BP was -- as Texas Republican Joe Barton called it -- a "shakedown," then what would Barton call the $14.4 million he has extracted during his career from oil and gas interests, electric utilities, the health sector, chemical manufacturers, finance and all the other industries forking over cash to him?

Barton is the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over drug companies, telecom, the automotive industry, mining, Hollywood and more. Both Republicans and Democrats on that committee rushed to distance themselves from Barton's "shakedown" apology. Yet in the 2010 election cycle alone, members of that committee have already received $42 million from PACs and individuals. Their haul totaled $66 million during the 2008 cycle. Is it any wonder that the nickname for the committee, on the Hill and on K Street, is "the honey pot"?

The day before Barton said it, the 115 House members of the Republican Study Committee gave Barton his talking points; in a statement, they denounced the $20 billion escrow account that Obama forced BP to set up for the Deepwater Horizon disaster as a "Chicago-style political shakedown." I wonder how they -- or the 420 other members of Congress, of both parties - would label the Washington-style mutual extortion that goes on daily between members and lobbyists. Already more than $800 million has poured into congressional PACs and campaign committees during this off-year election cycle. How many of those checks would be solicited, offered, written and bundled if the Capitol didn't harbor a legal protection racket?

Though some members of Congress may blow some of those Benjamins on the high life, or stuff them in the freezer, the irony is that they and their contributors are in turn the marks of yet another shakedown. The principal reason our lawmakers and candidates have to dial for dollars, suck up to contributors and teeter on the brink of quid pro quo is that they need the dough to buy campaign ads on television and radio.

MORE AT SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/the-real-shakedown-to-apo_b_619969.html

[yurbud]

1. k & r