Convicted Lobbyist Abramoff on 60 MINUTES tonight! Lessons in how to sell your soul...

[Dover]

(CBS News) Congress passed new ethics reform laws soon after the stink began to rise from the biggest political corruption scandal in decades. But the man at the center of that scandal, ex-lobbyist and now ex-convict Jack Abramoff, says new rules don't work, because lobbyists can always find ways around them. "We're smarter than they are and we'll overcome it," he tells Lesley Stahl in his first television interview that could be described as a buyer's guide to purchasing influence in Washington. The interview will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" Sunday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.


Though he says he now regrets using cash and gifts to buy influence in Congress - among the crimes that landed him in prison for over three years - could he still do the same thing today despite new ethics laws? "Yeah... the system hasn't been cleaned up at all," he tells Stahl. "There's an arrogance on the part of lobbyists...that no matter what they come up with...we'll just find another way through."


The reforms are little more than window dressing says Abramoff, whose crimes resulted in charges brought against 20 congressional staffers, a congressman and several Bush administration officials. "You can't take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or steak...but you can take him to a fundraising lunch and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fundraiser...same access...same interaction with that congressman," says Abramoff. "So the people who make the reforms are the people in the system."


Whether it's an expensive gift, a job, event tickets, vacations or straight cash, Abramoff calls it all bribery and says nearly all politicians are guilty of it. "I am talking about giving a gift to somebody who makes a decision on behalf of the public and at the end of the day that's really what bribery is," he says. "But it's done every day and it's still being done...There were very few members ...who didn't at some level, participate in that."

cont'd
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57317459/lobbyists-can-skirt-ethics-reform-says-abramoff/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

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Abramoff recounts in the book how he left the life of a movie producer to join the 1994 Republican Revolution.

“Lobbyists were those evil corporate pukes who disdained ideologues like me. They were the guys in the $2,000 suits who sucked the lifeblood out of our nation. Why would I ever become one of those guys?” Abramoff writes. -- from his K Street 'tell all' book

More here: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/191239-abramoff-divulges-k-street-secrets-in-tell-all-biography

[Vincardog]

1. There were very few members ...who didn't at some level, participate in that."

[meow2u3]

2. The only way to stop lobbying abuses is to outlaw the professional lobbying industry

This way, professional lobbyists, with their influence trafficking, would officially belong on the same level as drug traffickers, gun runners, pimps, and other crime rings.

[sabrina 1]

3. But to do that, you would have to throw out nearly everyone in

Congress right now, because while you are correct, these are the very people who will vote against any attempt to actually change the way things are.

He is confirming what OWS is all about. The Money in Politics. But how do you get it out under the current broken system? That will have to be up to the people because the bought-and-paid-for elected officials will never let it happen.

[AntiFascist]

4. This is why we have the government that we have. n/t

[PSPS]

5. Does the CBS rate card now have an entry for "be a guest on 60 Minutes to shill your book?"

[socialindependocrat]

6. He also said he had 100 people bought and paid for.

Congress is bought

The supreme court is bought

Without a doubt - VOTE THEM OUT!!!!!

Pick your list of good guys and get rid of the rest.
What do we have to loose - they aren't doing a damn thing anyway!!!!????