Ban on Relatives Lobbying

Today's edition of Roll Call has another story about relatives lobbying Congress and South Dakota Politics has a fascinating round-up of articles about Linda Daschle's lobbying and the criticism it has generated. Here's an excerpt from the Roll Call piece, which is about Senator Reid's call for an investigation into or a new ethical rule regarding the practice of relatives lobbying Congress:

“There are a lot of things we need to talk about,” said Reid, the vice chairman of the evenly divided six-member panel.

Voinovich declined to say whether he would endorse such a wide-ranging review of the Ethics Manual, citing the traditionally close-to-the-vest nature of the committee. “I’m not going to discuss what my conversations were or were not with Senator Reid,” he said Tuesday.

While ethics rules are only sporadically revamped, the section on family members lobbying Senators has remained particularly vague even as the practice of Members’ spouses and children taking lucrative six-figure lobbying jobs has mushroomed in recent years.

...

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle’s wife, Linda Hall Daschle, has been a pre-eminent aviation lobbyist for the past half-dozen years, although she maintains a self-imposed rule forbidding any contact with the South Dakota Democrat’s staff or any Senate offices. The leader’s daughter-in-law, Jill Daschle, also recently registered as a lobbyist, although Daschle aides say she abides by a similar no-Senate ban on lobbying.

Again, why did the Daschle campaign want to bring up lobbying? It sure seems like mistake. Also, South Dakota Politics wonders what the Argus Leader is doing on this issue. Good Question. Finally, why would Reid bring this up? It can't make Daschle happy. And it adds to the previously reported speculation in The Hill about Daschle's leadership being challenged.

Comments

[Mark D. Walker]

The Aberdeen American News (Knight-Ridder), Aberdeen SD is another Daschle Media outlet. The Daschle Team thinks they have silenced those who consider Daschle to be a sinister political operative. I'm afraid John Thune will not get a fair hearing during this election. Daschle's allies will ensure the manipulation of the Native American vote on the various Reservations. Thune should have vigorously challenged Johnson back in 2002 over those 524 votes.