Washington on
$10 Million A Day:
How Lobbyists Plunder the Nation

We are living through the high holy days of US politics. Appeals to the most profound ideals of democracy and justice ring sacredly from the House floor, while through the air over Iraq fly the defenders of all things good and wholesome. We wage war abroad but are serenely at peace with ourselves as we battle for the sanctity of the presidential office. The mellifluous voice of Henry Hyde assures the people of the necessity of our difficult course and the president applies his greatest power, unleashing the war machine, also in the name of democracy and justice.

The president gets blowjobs, Iraq gets bombed. It all makes perfect sense.

But there is hope. Below the cold, twisted metal of American politics lie reason, control, and effectively applied power that sustain the most essential, most dominant institutions of American life. The explosive combination of Monica and Saddam caused only the most minor blips on Wall Street's ticker tape. The professionals residing on the K Street corridor in Washington make sure of that. It's the lobby-lined arena that keeps Hyde and Clinton within the rules of the transnational corporate game. A little sex here, a little war there blows off political steam. As long as it doesn't interfere with business, business doesn't care.

Ken Silverstein, co-editor of CounterPunch, the Washington-based investigative newsletter, has cut through the facade of fools to the roots of real politics in Washington on $10 Million A Day. Silverstein dressed himself up, made a few calls, donated a little money, and got himself invited to both Democratic and Republican fund raisers to get an insider look at the heart of US politics. Add to that his first-rate investigative skills and you get reporting at its best. This little book tells it like it is and provides us with a tale of democratic woe.

Lobbyists have been with us throughout the history of the republic but have come further and further out from the back rooms, cloak rooms, smoky rooms and lobbies into the open air, mocking themselves up as "grassroots" mobilizers out for the best interests of the people. Silverstein's book bursts with examples. Philip Morris, a Fortune 500 top-ten, put up $7 million of the $11 million for the National Smokers Alliance (NSA), a fake grassroots organization put together by the top-flight PR firm Burson-Marsteller. The NSA "sends recruits into bars, bowling alleys, bingo parlors, and country fairs to sign up members, and pays a commission for each" in an effort to avoid tobacco control legislation.

Not satisfied with its own fraudulent grassroots organization, Philip Morris put Burson-Marsteller to work investigating a genuine grassroots organization that posed and poses a threat to the marketing of tobacco—one I happen to work for. INFACT, a corporate watchdog with 21 years of experience, launched a Tobacco Industry Campaign in 1993. That same year, Burson provided Philip Morris with expensive advice on how to beat us at our own game. The tenacity of real grassroots campaigns is proven by the fact that after five years, INFACT, with a handful of staff and pocket change, is still on the heels of $57 billion Philip Morris.

As false as the NSA is, it pales in comparison to Contributions Watch, a Washington "watchdog" group started in 1996 that published reports on political donations to federal candidates, supposedly in the interest of campaign reform. An early report by Contributions Watch focused on how much trial lawyers gave to candidates. Silverstein's excellent snoop work discovered that Contributions Watch was created and controlled by the State Affairs Company, a Washington lobby shop. The trial lawyers report was paid for entirely by Philip Morris. Philip Morris set up its own watchdog group and hid behind it, making every effort to prevent the connection of State Affairs and Contributions Watch from being made. Contributions Watch so effectively covered its true affiliation that the head of one chapter of Citizens Actions wrote Philip Morris' lapdog organization to ask how they might work together.

Corporations, of course, are not solely domestic institutions. They're huge transnationals, and therefore deeply interested in foreign policy. The examples of influence-peddling by transnational corporations in foreign affairs Silverstein exposes are horrifying. When the Mexican Peso collapsed in 1995, Chase Bank sent a memo to its top clients warning about Mexican instability, especially the threat posed by the Zapatistas. "While Chiapas," reads the memo, "does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national security territory and security policy." Regarding the Mexican election, the bank had more advice: "The Zedillo administration will need to consider carefully whether or not to allow the opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box."

Below the sound and fury of sex and war, transnationals pull the strings of the republic to further establish the era of corporate rule. Silverstein shows their operations in full color. Transnationals fight by organizing vast sums of money. The rest of us must fight by organizing vast sums of people. Look carefully for a real grassroots corporate accountability campaign, and join up.

Reviewed by Todd Basch
01.25.99

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