What was the lobbyist doing there when Scalise was shot?

[Anonymous]

I would have a lot more respect for a lobbyist who is a recognized subject matter expert than some random soulless staffer who's whoring themselves out to a lobbying firm to serve whatever cause du jour just because they know people.

[Anonymous]

there are rules about lobbying

[Anonymous]

What was the lobbyist doing?

He was talking out of both sides of his mouth ;0)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I read it's no big deal - he is an ex-baseball player and ex-staffer who loves the Congressional baseball game so continues to help coach the team. Sure we need to be careful about undue influence by lobbyists, but I don't think that's what's going on here.

And you know this because ... . Influence isn't always in the form of quid pro quo and galas and sweet boondoggle getaways. It's based on relationships, it's insidious, and a good lobbyist knows that friendship is far more powerful this any other form of influence.

Because I'm a human being with friends who used to be staffers and are now lobbyists.

Look - I get it - life is networking and relationships and we need to be careful at the intersection of government and business, it's an area where we should certainly be extra cautious. But we also need to leave room for the fact that everyone involved is a real person with real relationships. Lets start with giving folks the benefit of the doubt before we launch into outrage.

+1 Many staffers go on to become lobbyists. It doesn't alarm me at all that this guy was playing with them, and I'm no supporter of the big ag lobby. This happens. People start off as lowly staffers and then move on. You're acting like these people shouldn't even be friends. It just doesn't work that way on either side of the aisle. It's not unethical.

Disagree strongly. It's unethical and there should be a strong firewall and rules of engagement between members of Congress and lobbyists, along with oversight and accountability.

This kind of inappropriate friendliness is precisely how democracy is hijacked and undermined.

I disagree on it being unethical, which doesn't mean it couldn't potentially still be problematic. You could make the arguement that because of implicit bias we need to have stronger firewalls between Congress and lobbyists, and if we agreed that was true we could put rules in place to enforce that. All valid.

But that is NOT the current situation, and it is offensive to smear the character of a man who from reports was just playing the sport he loves with old colleagues. This is especially true while he is in the hospital and not in a position to defend himself.

By all means discuss the relationship between lobbyists and Congress and ways we can reduce their influence (hint: actually giving Congress enough budget for members to have experienced, smart staff and paying Congressional staffers enough to stay on the public side might help.) Just do it without casting aspersions on Mika.

And not that it matters, but I'm a liberal Democrat. I don't say this in defense of 'my' team, but because I think our tendency to conflate system failures with individual failures is one of our big problems as a country. We need to be able to distinguish between the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I read it's no big deal - he is an ex-baseball player and ex-staffer who loves the Congressional baseball game so continues to help coach the team. Sure we need to be careful about undue influence by lobbyists, but I don't think that's what's going on here.

And you know this because ... . Influence isn't always in the form of quid pro quo and galas and sweet boondoggle getaways. It's based on relationships, it's insidious, and a good lobbyist knows that friendship is far more powerful this any other form of influence.

Because I'm a human being with friends who used to be staffers and are now lobbyists.

Look - I get it - life is networking and relationships and we need to be careful at the intersection of government and business, it's an area where we should certainly be extra cautious. But we also need to leave room for the fact that everyone involved is a real person with real relationships. Lets start with giving folks the benefit of the doubt before we launch into outrage.

+1 Many staffers go on to become lobbyists. It doesn't alarm me at all that this guy was playing with them, and I'm no supporter of the big ag lobby. This happens. People start off as lowly staffers and then move on. You're acting like these people shouldn't even be friends. It just doesn't work that way on either side of the aisle. It's not unethical.

Disagree strongly. It's unethical and there should be a strong firewall and rules of engagement between members of Congress and lobbyists, along with oversight and accountability.

This kind of inappropriate friendliness is precisely how democracy is hijacked and undermined.

I disagree on it being unethical, which doesn't mean it couldn't potentially still be problematic. You could make the arguement that because of implicit bias we need to have stronger firewalls between Congress and lobbyists, and if we agreed that was true we could put rules in place to enforce that. All valid.

But that is NOT the current situation, and it is offensive to smear the character of a man who from reports was just playing the sport he loves with old colleagues. This is especially true while he is in the hospital and not in a position to defend himself.

By all means discuss the relationship between lobbyists and Congress and ways we can reduce their influence (hint: actually giving Congress enough budget for members to have experienced, smart staff and paying Congressional staffers enough to stay on the public side might help.) Just do it without casting aspersions on Mika.

And not that it matters, but I'm a liberal Democrat. I don't say this in defense of 'my' team, but because I think our tendency to conflate system failures with individual failures is one of our big problems as a country. We need to be able to distinguish between the two.

+100

[Anonymous]

God forbid a lobbyist who knows something about baseball help out coaching a congressional team just because he's a lobbyist. You people are bat shit crazy

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the PPs that posted earlier and said I don't think it's unethical. I still don't. There are strict rules about lobbying. I mean, there are lobbyists on both sides of the aisle and on all issues. It's not like they are all big, bad industry lobbyists. We will have to agree to disagree on this.

One other thing, though. I have friends who are lobbyists and friends who are staffers (I am neither). The people I know - and they are on both sides of the aisle - are very, very careful about what they say and do in social situations and don't violate ethics rules. If you think that's "just the way it works", well then... I'm sorry but either 1) you don't know because you don't know any lobbyists or staffers, or 2) you know unethical ones. I'm not saying it doesn't happen at all because there are bad apples in every industry, but c'mon - this is like saying the teacher shouldn't be friends with the person who used to be a teacher and is now on the school board.

Plus, this guy was shot and is still in the hospital. Let it go.