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01/31/2002 Entry: "My theory why Dick's keeping his meeting records secret"
While driving home today, I came up with some wishful thinking as to why Veep Dick is willing to get sued over some silly meeting records.
It's obvious it has nothing to do with an outraged public learning that political contributions buy influence. We know who rules, and apparently we don't give a toot After all we put up with way worse than croonie capitalism, say boiling fish, rivers full of chicken shit, frankenforests. Whatever. Unless there's an intern involved somehow, no ordinary citizen is going to remember these records for more than a couple days.
My guess is it's the energy companies he may be worried about. Suppose the companies met Dick one on one, instead of all at once at some central meeting. Suppose at each meeting Dick told the company how lucky it was he could fit the meeting into his schedule, and how much the administration appreciated their support, and how, but perhaps, if they'ld thrown in a few more million he might have been able to allocate more time. He then listens patiently to the requests for deregulation, looking interested, nodding at all the right places, taking notes occasional
ly. Eventually the phone rings, the meeting ends, but not before another request for additional donations is thrown out.
But let's suppose eveyone's meeting ended up be a constant thirty minutes long, regardless of what their actual donations were. Or worse yet, the meeting lengths actually had some correlation to the individuals work experience or knowledge of energy policy. Let's assume Dick did absolutely nothing wrong, and that he based his plans on a fair assesment of all the data he had available, regardless of donation amount. And that the energy policy was actually what he really thought was best for the country. And, hey, as long as the records stayed hidden, the companies would be none the wiser. Everyone got their meeting, made their pitch for government handouts, and left with a warm fuzzy glow.
Now imagine the meeting records come to light, and the donors get to see the full picture of everyone who had access.... Wouldn't you as a corporate donor be pissed to find out that your investment didn't buy the influence you thought they had; that your meeting was the same length as someone who gave a fraction of your donation, that some wacky environmentalist may have had the same amount of influence you had and that your chief competitor had a meeting just an hour before you ? That, in fact, the main reason for your meeting was just to hit you up for more money ? Just how big a check would you be writing when the next election came around ....
Like I said, wishful thinking, but it would still be a pretty interesting turn of events.
