D.C. Extortionists: Your Congressmen

Palin's column contains this information:

...Schweizer interviewed former Chairman of Apache Corporation Ray Plank. Plank said campaign cash and lobbying contracts now function as “protection money” to keep lawmakers and regulators from going after you. 

“It’s what you expect from the mafia,” said Plank. “They basically come to you and say, ‘We are going to shove this bat up your ass and give you an enema. You better play ball.’ We saw a great deal of it. It’s an insidious blight.”...

That reminded me of a lunch conversation I had with a friend/business associate several years ago.  He was CEO of a relatively large company and was active with the industry trade-association, so he got out to D.C. regularly.

Trust me:  the above quote from Plank is a virtual copy/paste of what my friend told me over that lunch.

Something else:  he was clear that 'both sides' played that game.  The R's would promise to un-do/prevent D damage, and vice-versa.

It's no wonder that Congress wrote such comprehensive racketeering and corruption laws, eh?