"All government watchdogs agree that attempting to limit the ways lobbyists can influence members of Congress is a laudable goal, and that the new ethics law requiring more disclosure of lobbyists' activities was a useful step. But demonizing the lobbyists themselves will not fix a system that is rooted in the need for candidates to raise money, according to government watchdogs. Public financing of campaigns, they believe, is the only way to remove the financial connection between special interests and candidates.
"Lobbyists in and of themselves are not bad. We need lobbyists," said Bob Edgar, a former congressman who now heads Common Cause, a government watchdog group. "People like [Jack] Abramoff and [former House majority leader Tom] DeLay have really given lobbyists and lobbying a bad name," Edgar said, referring to the jailed super-lobbyist and the lawmaker who resigned from Congress after his ties to the disgraced Abramoff were exposed."
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