#69: business as usual

As a political persona-non-grata, I watched from the sidelines the Democrats come to power in last year's Congressional elections. I was made to believe (and I did believe) that such a resounding rebuke of the Republican agenda, policies, and practices would change the way business is done inside the Beltway. I clearly overestimated the power of the ballot and underestimated the inertia of entrenched interests. As WPost reports, the Democrats are doing just as their counterparts did for the last 12 years: pandering to lobbyists to shore up revenues for the next elections. So much for the promise of good governance.

In my profession, this is bribery and a felony. I suppose those who script the rules have legalised it for themselves.

Politics and power everywhere is so brazenly alike. In my favourite TV show and satire, BBC's "Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister", Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Administrative Affairs once observed ....

"Ministers come; ministers go. But the government must go on."

With the subtext .... without any change! Business as usual.