I save newpaper clippings for some time thinking I might actually need them for something at a later date. Well, I just threw out two of them because either I'm tired of looking at them or they're no longer useful. But one item still rankles enough for me to comment on.
From the New York Times, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009 (did I say I was a pack rat?):
The headline reads: "In House Record, Many Spoke with One Voice: The Lobbyists."
In this case the lobbyists were from Genentech and they were smart enough to craft one statement for Republicans and one for Democrats. The issue was health care but I'm more concerned with how willing our representatives are to accept statements on face value and enter them into the Congressional Record under their own name.
So why did I save this article? Because MY CONGRESMAN, Bill Pascrell Jr., (D-NJ), was one of those who blithely entered the Genentech statement into the Record under his name.
When this was pointed out to Mr. Pascrell, the NYTimes reports him saying he got the statement from his staff and: "did not know where they got the information from." I don't suppose he thought to ask them, did he?
Is it any wonder lobbyists control the Congress?
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