Lobbyists — Our Third Political Party  December 28 2010 by
Ronald R. Pollina  The difficult situation we are in today
results in large part from a system of government driven by
special-interest groups and politicians who must weigh campaign
contributions before deciding what causes to support and how to
vote. In his book, Selling Out: How Big Corporate Money Buys
Elections, Rams Through Legislation, and Betrays Our Democracy,
Mark Green writes that one senator complained that he was lucky
to work from mid-Tuesday to Thursday as he needed to spend the
rest of the week fund-raising.  He went on to state that members
of Congress are “loath” to vote on any controversial issue as it
may come back to haunt them when raising money. This constant
fund-raising takes a toll physically and psychologically and
cites this example: “‘I can’t think,’” an exasperated President
Bill Clinton once bellowed to his staff. “‘You want me to issue
executive orders, but I can’t focus on a thing but the next
fund-raiser.’”  In essenc