Political Money: An Ever-Open Spigot?

Howard Paster, until recently President Clinton’s congressional liaison, has been hired as chief lobbyist of the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm for a salary estimated at $1 million per year. Roy M. Neel has left his $125,000-per-year post as White House deputy chief of staff for an estimated $500,000 per year at another lobbying firm. There is nothing illegal about these moves. By the Clinton Administration’s ethical guidelines, there is nothing unethical about them either.

That’s just the trouble.

Even if neither job-hopper will personally lobby a highly placed government official, both will supervise others doing so. The revolving door seems to be revolving faster than ever; and if the law and the guidelines permit this, they may need to be tightened.

Meanwhile, it would help if the beleaguered public were permitted to know every last dollar that every last lobbyist spends buying laws that will help those who pay lobbyists their salaries and, too often, hurt those who merely pay taxes.

Freshman Reps. Karen Shepherd of Utah and Eric D. Fingerhut of Ohio, both Democrats, have worked hard to bring their Sunshine for Lobbyists Act before the House. Alas, neither Speaker Thomas S. Foley nor Minority Whip Newt Gingrich has seemed at all eager to shut off the money spigot.

With the spigot open and the White House door still spinning, the taxpayer is in as much trouble as ever. Shepherd and Fingerhut will try again, however, when Congress reconvenes, and The Times warmly endorses their continuing efforts.

Speaking of money in politics, The Times does not begrudge President Clinton his recent Hollywood bash, even though the tickets went for as much as $100,000 and none of the money (despite what they tell you) came without strings. Clinton says he supports campaign finance reforms that would drastically reduce contributions like those his party just raked in. He simply does not want the political equivalent of unilateral disarmament. If Congress will pass a campaign reform law, he says, he will sign it gladly.

But what kind of campaign reform law? Watch what the President does when the campaign reform bills passed by the House and the Senate go to conference committee early next year. If Clinton puts presidential-level pressure on the conferees to include the best features of the two bills, especially the public financing feature of the House bill, then his Administration--Paster and Neel notwithstanding--may not be business-as-usual after all. If he doesn’t, well, a Democratic President can’t be altogether unhappy to have Democrats safely installed in offices where the really big money is dished out.