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Lobbyists Ghostwriting Speeches for House Members

Dozens of House members used lobbyist-prepared comments in their speeches on healthcare.

According to Robert Pear, The New York Times:

"Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies....

"E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans....

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress."

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It sounds like we have

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 03:01 — bruceb (not verified)
It sounds like we have outsourced congress...

A Vote of Confidence

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 08:42 — Marc Schlee (not verified)
A Vote of Confidence Amendment will give American voters the power to dismiss any federal officeholder at any time. VOCA, Now !! FREE AMERICA REVOLUTIONARY (DIRECT) DEMOCRACY

A Vote of Confidence ability

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 13:41 — Anonymous (not verified)
A Vote of Confidence ability to throw out a federal officeholder seems most likely to encourage e.g. corporately managed smear campaigns AGAINST independent minded politicians. This would increase corporate control of politicians, not decrease it. Mechanisms driven by inflamed passions lead more to lynching than justice.

The scary thing is, the

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 17:48 — Anonymous (not verified)
The scary thing is, the politicians and their staff evince no shame whatever when confronted with stark evidence of doing the bidding of whoever pays them, over and above what we the people do.

The scary thing is, the

 Mon, 11/16/2009 - 17:57 — Anonymous (not verified)
The scary thing is, the politicians and their staff evince no shame whatever when confronted with stark evidence of doing the bidding of whoever pays them, over and above what we the people do.