So Damn Much Money

Much of the breakdown of our political system can be laid at the foot of lobbyists.  It's an idea our founding father understood, but they had no idea what kind of money would be involved today. Neither did they envision "earmarks" and Senate campaigns that would cost upwards of five million dollars and Presidential campaigns that would approach a billion.

Robert G. Kaiser, an experienced reporter and former managing editor of The Washington Post, has written a fascinating book that explains why earmarks have become more common since the 1970s and raises the curtain on Washington to reveal a tragic drama in which money triumphs over principle. Here, in a single book, is the reason why our politics must be transformed.

My conversation with Robert Kaiser, author of So Damn Much Money: The Triumph of Lobbying and the Corrosion of American Government