Academic

ROLL CALL: ENDING THE EARMARK GAME: The vast bulk of the media coverage of PMA, and of the Jack?

By Glenn Reynolds

ROLL CALL: ENDING THE EARMARK GAME:

The vast bulk of the media coverage of PMA, and of the Jack Abramoff scandal that preceded it, focuses on the unseemly details of what, in reality, is commonplace behavior among D.C.?s power brokers.

Little wonder that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a major beneficiary of PMA?s contributions and a major dispenser of appropriations earmarks, is ?contrition-free,? as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. After all, the same behavior that the media deem worthy of censure earns him accolades in his home district, where a banner reads ?We Support John Murtha. He Delivers for Us.?

As Murtha argues, earmarks are a perfectly legal part of the game, and he?s just a much better player than most of his peers. The Post-Gazette describes the PMA triangle as follows: Murtha ?directs earmarks to particular firms that hire lobbyists who, in turn, direct campaign contributions back to Mr. Murtha.? For investigators to search for smoking-gun evidence of criminal intent in such a Borromean knot is as difficult as trying to pinpoint formal causation in a chicken-and-egg problem.

What is needed is not just an investigation. What is needed is a game changer, something to cut through the knot of influence- peddling once and for all.

I don’t think that public financing is the answer, though. I think the answer is to give Congress less money to spend.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on May 07, 2009 (boomark / email).