When money and daylight pour into Washington

WASHINGTON - Lobbying is Washington's grubby secret. Some say it is part of the democratic process. Others claim it is legalised bribery.

Every once in a while something comes along to open the system to the thing it hates most: daylight.

The case of Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and a clutch of Indian tribes which paid them US$82 million ($120 million) is one of those somethings.

Abramoff claims he was doing nothing illegal, that the Indians got value for money and his only sin was to have been too good at his job. But now his career, indeed his liberty, are under threat, as the FBI investigates allegations of massive fraud.

The affair has cast a dark cloud over Tom DeLay, the former pesticide salesman from Texas turned House Majority Leader. Some even believe the scandal could mark the beginning of the end of this era of Republican dominance.

Lobbying per se is nothing new. The right to "petition the Government for a redress of grievances" is enshrined in the first amendment of the Constitution. As long ago as 1913, Woodrow Wilson was complaining that Washington was "swarming with lobbyists ... you can't throw a brick in any direction without hitting one".

But the 28th President cannot have imagined how access-peddling would blossom into a US$4 billion industry.

There are 14,000 registered lobbyists, and at least as many again who are not registered. The money pours in not just from the US but around the world.

Between 1998 and 2004, foreign companies spent US$620 million bending ears in Washington.

Lobbying thrives in the US for two reasons.

Congress is the legislative branch of the constitution. It writes laws and appropriates money for Government spending.

Most important, it is separate from the executive branch headed by the White House.

Although President George W. Bush's Republican party has majorities in the House and Senate, he has no direct control of the bills they consider.

For a lobbyist this is heaven, a sky studded with dozens of powerful committee chairmen and ranking members, all with their fiefdoms, whose yea or nay is decisive.

The other key ingredient is money, the colossal sums needed to fight election campaigns. Total spending for the 2004 elections, presidential and Congressional, reached US$4 billion.

The average cost of defending a Senate seat is US$20 million.

This means an incumbent has to raise US$9000 every day of his six-year term. There is only one place to get that kind of money. And so the merry-go-round starts to turn.

The basic trade-off is simple. Corporate and other donors (among them Indian tribes) provide money in a bid to secure the legislation they want, with desired exemptions, loopholes and financial breaks.

The intermediaries between the two sides are the lobbyists. Jack Abramoff and his ilk are key figures in Washington's power networks.

And no network was mightier than the one embracing Abramoff, DeLay and Grover Norquist, president of the Americans for Tax Reform interest group.

- INDEPENDENT