CAMPAIGN SNAPSHOT

	January 7, 2004
	The NewsHour features another snapshot of candidates on the campaign trail. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D-N.C., talk about the problem of influence peddling in Washington on the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire.

JIM LEHRER: We have a double snapshot tonight of Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards. Both were talking today about influence peddling in Washington. Kerry was in Bedford, N.H. Edwards was in Des Moines. Kerry is first. SEN. JOHN KERRY: Today big corporations and K Street lobbyists trip over themselves in Washington to put their money into Bush/Cheney campaign, to put their money into a particular party to gain access to the United States Congress. It used to be that lobbyists and CEOs sort of skipped in between government and corporate America. But in this administration they've kicked in the revolving door, they've broken down the walls between public service and private profit, and they have stampeded into positions of power. Today's cabinet members are yesterday's corporate board members, and former foreign lobbyists have been put in charge of the very laws that export American companies and jobs. Instead of equal rights for all, instead of an equal playing field for all, George Bush has given those with connections and campaign cash privileges and protections that are not available to most of you in this room, especially hardworking middle class Americans whose voices are increasingly pushed aside in the agenda of Washington. If you are a corporation using loopholes to avoid paying taxes, or if you're a big business that's sending jobs overseas, or if you're a CEO that's given yourself a bonus even as you're cutting too many of your employees and haven't even made a profit, then you've found a very friendly voice in Washington. I'm running for president to replace this kind of crony capitalism. And I intend to put in place a five-year ban that was temporarily in place with Bill Clinton and then lifted -- and we need to put in place -- that bans the revolving door, that bans people going directly from government into lobbying for a period of five years, so we end this incestuous revolving door relationship. I also am going to require that those lobbyists and those meetings with public officials ought to be a matter of official public record, so they are accountable to the American people and the actions that are taken as a consequence have the light ... the sunlight of democracy that's shining in on them. SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: We need to end this stranglehold that these lobbyists and special interests have on your democracy and your government. The lobbyists and insiders have built a brick wall around Washington, D.C., that keeps them in and keeps you out. They stand between you and the power to make your own medical decisions. They stand between you and cleaner air and cleaner water. They stand between you and more jobs, jobs that are desperately needed by the people of Iowa. They stand between you and better and more security at chemical and nuclear plants. They stand between you and the money that's needed for your children and grandchildren to go to college. And the only way to knock this wall down that stands between you and your government, you and your democracy is to end the nasty business of influence peddling that has existed in Washington for far too long. First, I will ban Washington lobbyists from donating campaign contributions to federal campaigns. I've never taken a dime from a Washington lobbyist, I never will. I said I wouldn't when I ran for the Senate; I kept my word, I've never taken a dime from these people. The second thing we're going to do is we're going to stop lobbyists from taking a top administration job in a subject and then going out and lobbying in exactly the same thing. You've all seen this happen; we've got a revolving door going on. You know these people work for you, they work for the government, and then they leave the government and join a lobbying firm and start lobbying the same people that they just worked with. We've got to put a stop to that. Third, we want to use the power of the Internet in a positive way to shine a bright light on what these lobbyists are doing every single day. Today, lobbyists only have to say every six months who they're working for. We'll require them to do it every two weeks, to disclose who they met with, who they're working for, what they've been lobbying for. I'm going to turn off the spigot of special interest spending that all these lobbyists are working on. We'll pass a law that gives the president the power to force Congress to defend on an up or down vote these pork barrel provisions that end up in bills. And also, I'll stop these special interests from sneaking items into bills that nobody has any knowledge about. You all know how this happens: The bill comes down to the floor; it's this thick. All these provisions have been snuck in at the last minute. Well, here's what we're going to do: We're going to require them to make these bills available at least seven days in advance so that everybody knows when they walk onto the floor of the United States Senate or the United States House to vote exactly what they're voting for so that we can hold them responsible for. And to those who say we can't make these changes that are so desperately needed, I have laid out in great detail, not just rhetoric, but real vision and real ideas about how to make these changes and put them in place. And to those who say to me that I'm not ready for this fight, they are so wrong. I am ready for this fight, I've been getting ready for this fight my entire life. You have got to give me a shot at George W. Bush so that we can actually take the White House back in 2004. (Cheers and applause) JIM LEHRER: We'll have similar campaign snapshots of other presidential candidates in the days ahead.