Egg Noodles and Ketchup

Murray Rothbard famously urged people to view the state as a "criminal gang."  In fact, we should view the American political system as a rivalry between two criminal families fighting over who gets to control the loot gained from their criminal activities.  Of course, the gangs will collaborate when necessary to protect the welfare-warfare state that enables their systematic plunder.  This cooperation among thieves is the real meaning of the "bipartianship" the establishment media is always clamoring for. 

The behavior of many GOP "elected representatives," staffers, and lobbyists certainly bears a closer resemblance to a gangster movie than the idealized picture of government presented in high school civics.  In return for free meals, sporting tickets, and trips members and staffers allowed lobbyists to shape the legislative agenda and even write the bills.  I have heard from reliable sources that the Republican staff of the House Financial Services Committee regularly showed lobbyists draft legislation weeks before the committee even bothered informing the average members that the legislation has been added to the committee's agenda.  The committee staffers also used government resources to promote briefings by their favorite lobbyists on the pretext that members and staffers needed the perspective of the "business community." 

The Financial Services Committee also took the "K Street" project to new, thug-like heights when they threatened an industry with unfavorable treatment unless they hired a Republican lobbyists. 

I can think of no better eulogy for the GOP Congress than Henry Hill's lament on leaving the gangster lifestyle for the wittiness protection program at the end of Goodfellas:

Everybody had their hands out.  Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over...After I got here I ordered spaghetti with marina sauce..and I got egg noodles with ketchup....I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of schnooks.

For more on culture on Capitol Hill see:

"K Street grumbles about an entitlement culture"  The Hill, 06/27/05
"The Road to Riches Is Called K Street"  Washington Post, 06/22/05
"K Street Faces Changing of the Guard"  Capitol Hill Blue, 11/16/06

Richard Wilkins