Word: vital
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...feel morally obligated to offer our readers the widest possible spectrum of Op-Ed opinions. How else is the clash of ideas so vital to public discussion and an informed electorate to occur...
...such is scarcely a sin. Quite the contrary. "Without lobbying," declared three Senators (Democrats Edward Kennedy and Dick Clark, Republican Robert Stafford) in a joint statement on the lobby disclosure bill, "Government could not function. The flow of information to Congress and to every federal agency is a vital part of our democratic system. But there is a darker side to lobbying. It derives from the secrecy of lobbying and the widespread suspicion, even when totally unjustified, that secrecy breeds undue influence and corruption." Chairman Ribicoff observes that "lobbying has reached a new dimension and is more effective than ever...
...balance the relationship between the governors and the governed, even when the lobbyist does represent one of the nation's many special-interest groups, is often mutually beneficial, and perhaps indispensable, to the fullest workings of democracy. The increasingly knowledgeable and competent Washington lobbyist supplies a practical knowledge vital to the writing of workable laws. He does it at no public expense?and at only the cost of being sure his own interests get the fullest of hearings. All in all, that may not be a bad bargain, but it does represent a major change in the way the Government...
...votes for bribes or women. The Korea lobby scandal is evidence of the corruption that may always endanger the delicate relationship between the lobbyist and the lobbied. Yet until the recent reforms in Congress, the modern lobbyist's most effective tactic was to concentrate on the committees where the vital decisions were made. A few decades ago, A.F.L.-C.I.O. Lobbyist Walter Mason helped labor's cause by getting Pennsylvania Republican Carroll Kearns so drunk on the nights before key meetings of the House Education and Labor Committee that he was unable to cast his usual antilabor vote...
...their way, many Latin American governments now seem determined to save what remains of their ancient national heritage. Explains Silvio Mutal, a Lima-based U.N. official who has been helping in the struggle to preserve Andean culture: "We are dealing with the birthright of whole races. It is vital that these artifacts stay in their countries of origin so that the descendants of their makers can see and learn from their past...