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Too Much Money in Washington?

How have money and special interests influenced American politics over the last three decades? What kind of power do lobbyists have in Washington, D.C. nowadays? Host Maureen Cavanaugh speaks to Was

Too Much Money in Washington?

Maureen Cavanaugh : There once was a time in Washington, D.C. when politicians worked across party lines on issues of national importance, when divisive politics was something for campaign speeches and not for the halls of Congress, and when lawmakers thought of themselves as statesmen.

That is the Washington that worked according to my guest, Bob Kaiser. He saw it for himself back in the 1960's. But then, he says, came the change, in the form of big money, perpetual campaigning, special interests and most of all, the growing power of lobbyists. The result, he says, has been a government that can't get anything done and a corroded culture on Capitol Hill.

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Bob Kaiser will be discussing his new book "So Damn Much Money" tonight, February 9, 2009, at 7pm at the Revelle Forum at UCSD .
 

Guest

  • Bob Kaiser , associate editor of the Washington Post and author of the new book "So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government."