Edwards challenges others to reject lobbyist dollars;

[chimpymustgo]

(01-10) 13:53 PST MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) --

Sen. John Edwards challenged his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination on Saturday to join him in signing a pledge never to accept money from Washington lobbyists.

"I am promising and making it clear to every American that I will never take any money from a Washington lobbyist," Edwards said. "I never have. And I would challenge the other Democratic candidates to make the same promise."

Edwards attacked the Bush administration for allowing lobbyists to "get every wish granted" and vowed to undertake a series of reforms to change the atmosphere in Washington.

Among the ways he said he would strip power from lobbyists are to ban them from giving money to political candidates, prevent government officials from becoming lobbyists, and pass a sunshine law requiring lobbyists to disclose their activities with top government officials every two weeks.

-snip-


"Look at contributions made by companies that have gotten reconstruction contracts in Iraq," Edwards said. "Take a wild guess who the leading recipient is -- George W. Bush."

Edwards said he would stop firms who are bidding on and getting contracts in Iraq from making political contributions at the same time.
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/01/10/politics1653EST0576.DTL

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Talk about a "clean" campaign - on every level. What about other candidates? Who else is not taking lobbyists' money?

[Egnever]

1. Isn't that kerry's line?

I love how these guys act like they know nothing about thier competition.

[chimpymustgo]

3. I sure like both Edwards and Kerry.

nt

[AP]

2. Good for him.

This sounds vaguely familiar. Have other presidential candidates done this in the past?

[HFishbine]

4. Ruh, roh -- thin, thin ice

This is going nowhere and Edwards knows why.

"I will never take any money from a Washington lobbyist and I never have."

Drop the word "Washington" and Edwards can't make that claim.

Winston-Salem lobbyists, John?

[chimpymustgo]

6. Can you back up your distinction?

The article refers to "Washington lobbyists" and just plain "lobbyists".

[HFishbine]

8. The only Edwards quotes in the article

have him specifically saying "Washington lobbyists." There is a reason for that.

[H2O Man]

5. I really like Edwards...

... and think that he will make a great VP with either Clark or Dean.

[corporatewhore]

7. Kucinich wont accept from lobbyists or big corps