Katherine Harris's Transparency Problem

Katherine Harris told the Tampa Tribune "five weeks ago" to inform them of all the earmarks she placed in budgets. The casual reader would think the Trib could just look that up. Earmarks are Congress's secret way to put pork into the budget without voters knowing the lawmakers responsible. Many earmarks are written by K Street. John Boehner and Tom Delay were major supporters of earmarking.

K Street Project

The K Street Project is a project by the Republican Party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. It was launched in 1995, by Republican strategist Grover Norquist and House majority leader Tom DeLay.

K Street in Washington DC is where the big lobbying firms have their headquarters and is sometimes refered to as the fourth branch of government. Lobbying firms have great influence in U.S. national politics due to monetary resources and the revolving door policy of hiring former government officials. It is common practice for politicians to request money for lobbying firms for an exchange in better access to officials and to buy favoritism in policies.

Tom Delay told lobbyists, "If you want to play in our revolution, you have to live by our rules."

Katherine Harris played in the revolution. Now she doesn't want to tell the Trib about earmarks she set up for Mitchell J. Wade.

The contractor, Mitchell Wade, pleaded guilty in federal court last week to bribing one congressman and disguising his over-the-limit contributions to Harris and another Republican member of Congress so they would insert his projects into appropriations bills.

It's never a good sign when Harris's spokesperson, Kara Borie, admits the Congresswoman has beeen having discussions with her attorney. I'm betting these talks are not about the Federalist Papers.