Re: TownHall.com – 2/29/2008 – “The Freedom to Lobby” – Charles Krauthammer

The real problem with lobbying is not with the concept of lobbying itself, nor with the content of the proposals that get lobbied, but with some of the tactics that are used in lobbying.

It’s hard to argue constitutional law against the right to lobby.

But the way in which lobbying can be carried out is not protected in the Constitution. Certainly anyone is free to petition Congress to remove a President from office by impeachment. But the act of physically attacking the President as a symbolic gesture to Congress of your displeasure with the President is not protected under the right to petition. Clearly Congress has the right (and duty) to define reasonable limits on the methods of lobbyists, namely to restrict lobbying methods that otherwise violate laws implemented under Congress’ enumerated powers.

It’s not that lobbying is a notch below waterboarding. Lobbying, like intelligence gathering, is legal and necessary. But waterboarding is not intelligence gathering but a method of intelligence gathering. One may argue convincingly that waterboarding ought to be an illegal method of gathering intelligence and one would have little ground to stand on to claim that waterboarding is a Constitutionally protected method of information gathering since Congress has the authority to regulate methods of intelligence gathering under Article 1, Section 8 #14 and thus may regulate wateerboarding out of existence if it so chooses.

No, the problem with lobbying is some of the methods of lobbying are a notch below waterboarding, and Congress has both the right and duty to see that such methods of lobbying are illegal.