a little something I found while looking for Hastert's lease

this is a little dated, but it shows what happens in washington quite clearly

I. Following the Money: The Story of H.R. 5164

Behind the Scenes: An Auto Industry Fix

A truckload of auto company lobbyists, working with their allies in Congress, lined up senators to block consideration of McCain’s Senate bill. Due to their efforts, the Senate took up the much weaker House bill, permitting an up or down vote only without any amendments, and consumers got rolled. "The fix is in by the special interests," protested McCain.1

McCain was right. Auto industry special interests spent huge sums to influence lawmakers – particularly Republicans – in recent years, building up tremendous good will that worked to limit the future accountability of the auto industry. For instance:

* The auto industry has contributed $37.8 million to lawmakers since 1995; 77 percent, or $29 million, of the money went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.2
* The top 15 auto industry contributors have given $4.0 million in soft money since 1995. Ninety percent of the money went to Republicans (see Table 3).
* The top 15 auto industry hard money (PAC and individual) contributors have given $13.9 million since 1995; 74 percent, or $10.3 million, went to GOP candidates and committees (see Table 4).
* Leading companies and groups in the auto industry have spent more than $112.6 million to lobby Congress and the Clinton administration from 1997 through June 2000 (see Table 5).

The Senate: Anti-Democratic Anonymous Holds Kept McCain Bill Bottled Up

Rather than publicly opposing a bill that was unanimously passed in the Senate Commerce Committee, conservative Republican senators stopped it with a "rolling hold," keeping the bill from coming to a vote by asking Majority Leader Trent Lott to "hold" it up – but doing so anonymously.3 In this undemocratic tactic, senators pass the hold like a hot potato from one to another before their identities can be made public. Although McCain publicly implored senators with holds to come forward and negotiate with him on the safety legislation, no one stepped up.

CBS News identified Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as three of the culprits.4 Later, Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) acknowledged his role,5 as did Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in a colloquy with McCain on the Senate floor.6

The five senators publicly identified as placing a hold on the bill – Voinovich, McConnell, Hatch, Sessions and Bunning – all rank among the Senate’s top 30 recipients of auto industry PAC and individual contributions since 1995 (see Table 1). Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), as the top recipient of auto industry money at $605,000, sits on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He influenced the bill before consideration in committee, as did Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.), who is also on the Commerce committee and is the fourth largest recipient of auto industry money. The dictates from the auto industry were so compelling that even some senators who supported McCain’s version of the legislation when it passed unanimously out of the full Commerce committee followed the leadership’s cues and worked against the bill when it was time to produce it for a vote on the Senate floor.7 Only three of the 30 top Senate recipients of auto industry cash are Democrats.