In the Agora: DeLay, Daschle, and the Problems of Imperial Governance

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April 12, 2005

DeLay, Daschle, and the Problems of Imperial Governance

Imperial governance centralizes power and heightens the incentives for parochial interests to subvert democratic institutions and award themselves undeserved wealth. Shakespeare's Sister, a blog, notes one such minor move in this game, as American Airlines (a company in an industry where good relations with government are astoundingly central to any successful business plan, especially for a "legacy" player like AA) has given five thousand dollars to Tom DeLay's legal defense plan.

I don't want to defend DeLay. I am not defending DeLay. But let me point out, for those who have short historical memories (viz., the blogosphere), this Washington Monthly article on Tom Daschle's wife. The former Democratic Majority/Minority Leader's spouse was a lobbyist for, among other things, American Airlines:

For instance, among Linda Daschle's clients is American Airlines, which has had six fatal crashes since 1994 (not even including the World Trade Center flights). The airline has incurred thousands of dollars in federal fines for a host of safety violations, and its employees have been caught in embarrassing drug smuggling stings. Even as its planes have crashed, American has lobbied for years to water down safety and security regulations that might have helped foil the World Trade Center attacks. Yet thanks in part to lobbying efforts by Daschle---and support from her husband---American Airlines got a free pass in the recent airline bailout bill, escaping most legal liability for the hijackings and getting $583 million in cash grants---taxpayer money it will never have to repay.

Commenters, as the last time I talked about a similar subject, will probably object that I'm applying some sort of moral equivalence. Not quite: This is amoral equivalence. And it's a profound reason to remain sceptical of the claims of imperialists that centralization serves the public interest.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at April 12, 2005 04:52 PM

Comments

All the airlines suck taxpayer dollars all of the time. Since the beginning of commericial avaition, were books kept as they are for other industries, no airline ever made a genuine profit.Source: President of ATA.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 12, 2005 07:19 PM | permalink

Tends to undercut some of the case against Amtrak when you put it that way, don't it?

Posted by: philosopher at April 12, 2005 10:25 PM | permalink

I guess it shouldn't matter, we are dumb enough to elect them. Amazing, how many millions of possible candidates are out there and the electorate manages to select the most questionable?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 12, 2005 11:05 PM | permalink

We are not talking here about a Jim Wright (also of Texas). However, we are talking about how Newt raised enough questions (how many of you read Wright's best selling book...to contributors, that is?) that folks found real dirt. S&L scandals, etc. etc. The hope is that the media seeing blood in the water (or red ink for that matter since we all know of their ability to be discriminating with evidence)will swarm. I see the case against Mr. Delay as being connected to his breaking the Democrat Party rice bowl in Texas. No more than that and that requires no defense-it was a public service. Maybe Arnold will do the same for California? Point is, takes cojones. Delay has em. Most r's don't.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2005 04:14 AM | permalink