Beyond the specifics of this case, we should blame our corrupt system of campaign finance, which many Republicans and members of Free Republic have been DEFENDING with cult-like ferocity.
Unfortunately, this article is not primarily interested in analyzing the problem, but in bashing the Clinton administration. Republicans were at least as much to blame. (see the article below.) And, while you are cheering this article, ask yourself: what initiative or constructive actions were taken by the Republican-controlled congress to address this problem? And, what was the current Bush administration doing about airline security before Sept. 11?
My point is not to bash Republicans or conservatives. The point is that the basic problem transcends the corruption of the Clinton administration. The political system is corrupt, and that corruption stems in large part from our "system" of campaign finance.
The following is extracted from democrats.com
And the airlines made sure their views on costly anti-terrorism regulations were heard on Capital Hill. The industry had contributed to the 1995-96 campaigns of 10 of the 12 members on the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation - - the committee that funds the FAA. The Senate Aviation Subcommittee had similar ties to the airline industry: eight of nine Republican senators serving on that subcommittee in 1996 had received airline PAC contributions; only one of the eight Democrats on that subcommittee did....
Not surprisingly, the conservative press joined the airline industry in attacking the Gore Commission report. Most of the arguments advanced by the right focused on the "cost effectiveness" of implementing the recommendations. Susan Ellingwood's article in the March 10, 1997 edition of the New Republic entitled "Hot Air" is typical of the conservative response to the Gore Commission:
On a cost-effective basis, the recommendations simply don't add up. Robert W. Hahn, in a sobering article in the libertarian magazine Regulation titled "the cost of antiterrorist rhetoric," provides a table that looks at the Gore Commission recommendations, the amount requested for each proposal and the projected costs. The Gore Commission estimates that its recommendations would cost $429.4 million. But, according to Hahn, that's too low. Hahn says that "a full passenger-bag match alone will cost $2 billion annually." Actuarial studies, Hahn notes, assume the "implicit value of life for air travelers" to be "between $5 and $15 million." Two billion dollars a year to guard against terrorism and sabotage--a threat which, Hahn notes, is responsible for a grand total of thirty-seven deaths in U.S. planes since 1982--works out to "a cost per life saved of well over $300 million."
We all know how well the rule of law stopped events described in the article, don't we? By all means, let's get some new ones out there.
< /sarcasm >
Would you please post the name of the specific Republican who, in the last ten years, took campaign cash in return for curbing recommendations intending to preserve human life?