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A chairmanship can really cost though.

In Congress, the term ‘powerbroker’ is more close to being literal than we may have imagined and may be comfortable with. The chair of any of the congressional committees is tasked more heavily with the duty of bringing in money from Political Action Committees (PACS) as well as from corporate lobbyists. That is how the chairs are selected. It’s how the money flow works.  It’s no longer a simple matter of seniority or expertise on a subject. That democratic ideal died about the time Reagan came into office. You think you already know this, but really let it sink in for a bit.

The money the committee chairs are expected to bring in differs from committee to committee and from party to party (the GOP naturally expects more from its chairs), but if Mr. Perry were to really look for a Ponzi scheme in Washington, he needs look no farther than the entire ranking system used to place all Congressmen and Senators in their committee structures.

The RNC and the DNC and their respective campaign affiliates are the recipients of the funding of course, so it’s a fairly thorough little operation going on here. Yes, you understand all this, so why do I bring it up?

From time to time, there are efforts made to clean up the business of campaign contributions, or to put it more euphemistically, to “get money out of politics.” The problem with both these worthy aims is that money simply saturates the entire political culture, so for example, campaign finance reform is just the very tip of the very large iceberg.

Yes yes, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“McCain Feingold”) of 2002, a bipartisan effort to get back to the ideals upon which the nation was founded. There have been flutters of guilt, laws talked about and dropped, enacted and amended, but no one has managed to deal with the basic problem causing all that money to line all those pockets, making mockery of constituents who actually had come in thinking they were going to actually represent their constituents back home. Such a pleasant dream though, isn’t it?

Here’s the basic rub. The only way to really get money out of politics is to get rid of all the politicians. This is a perfect place to insert a smiley character, but we are attempting serious journalism here. But it is in an important notion to consider.

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