Word: publicize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...what's legal: the blatant, shameless greasing of congressional palms that violates good sense, good taste and good government. Capitol Hill is polluted by money -- campaign money, speech-giving money, outside money from investments, and money substitutes like all-expenses-paid vacations and gifts. Fred Wertheimer, president of the public-interest lobby Common Cause, is looked upon these days as an ethics ayatullah, but he is not overstating by much when he says, "Our nation faces a crisis in the way we govern ourselves. Our nation's capital is addicted to special-interest influence money. Members of Congress are living...
...Perhaps the worst part of the current culture is the amount of time and attention elected officials lavish not on the general public but on people who can lavish money on them. Members of Congress take to calling their contributors friends. The confusion makes for some convoluted rationalizations. A friend, the reasoning goes, can cut a member in on a lucrative investment, treat him to a luxurious vacation and supply him with cash, not because he has an interest in a one-line amendment to a bill that will save his industry millions of dollars, but because he is, well...
...public may be paying for the S & L fraud well into the next century. Even so, it seems unable to make the connection between such outrages and a permanent government that too often is up for sale to private interests. The notion that public service might require some sacrifice has become a quaint relic. Working in government, instead, has come to be seen as a way to enrich ! oneself. Public officials remain endlessly capable of rationalizing the trading of their office for private gain: we don't get paid enough; everybody does it; we could make much more...
...enough, though, few legislators voluntarily leave for private life. Congressmen routinely run for re-election; Capitol Hill salaries are no secret to politicians who spend years -- and a great deal of money -- trying to get into the club. What goes unmentioned in all the caterwauling about the sacrifices of public service is the joy it offers. Public officials lead interesting lives: they all have the opportunity to make a difference; some even make history. Compared with underappreciated professions like teaching and nursing, where doing well takes a backseat to doing good, Congressmen are handsomely paid. The days of politicians like...
...does not follow, however, that public servants should be paid a pittance. Yet right now the public seems to take the attitude that giving legislators money only encourages them. In a poll last week for TIME/CNN, more than 55% of 506 people surveyed did not feel that Congressmen should be required to give up all outside income, nor that they should get a raise in exchange...