Hey, It's Not Just AIPAC! Everybody Buys Political Favour!

[M.J. Rosenberg at Al Jazeera writes on the subject of Arab-Israeli relations, and he is frequently critical of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).  In an article entitled It's A Plutocracy, Stupid, he tells of receiving the following message from a Capitol Hill aide in AIPAC's defence]:

"I work on Capitol Hill and I disagree with you about AIPAC. You make it seem as if AIPAC is the only lobby that gets what it wants through threats of cutting off campaign contributions, as if only AIPAC dictates legislation through intimidation.

"Wrong! My colleague who handles the Israel issue confirms your analysis. But it is no different on the domestic issues I cover. The issues of jobs, health, taxes, the environment, regulation to protect kids' health, oil drilling, workers' safety, education, guns - they are all dictated by lobbies just as overbearing as AIPAC.

"All we do up here is cater to rich, selfish people and their special interests. And their interest is cutting all social programs so we can keep cutting taxes to make them even richer.

"True, most of them do not brag as much as AIPAC but that does not make them any better or worse, just smarter (AIPAC gets more negative attention because of its swagger). Big deal. The public is getting screwed eight ways to Sunday by special interests and AIPAC is just one of them.

"Do not mislead your readers into thinking it is unique. Not only is it not unique, it is insignificant in the sense that it is not the guys robbing the poor to put money in their own pockets. They own US Middle East policy. But the real fat cats own everything else."

[In other words, don't be so hard on AIPAC -- the whole government is in the hands of  plutocrats. Left-wing journalists write this kind of stuff all the time, but it's still a bit of a shock to see it put so plainly by a lobbyist insider.]