Legislative Ethics and Other Permeable Frontiers

Some totally unsurprising news -- especially if you happen to be a longtime reader of Phronesisaical -- from NPR today. Unsurprising as it may be, however, the story is profoundly important, and NPR is the only agency with the courage to touch it; many thanks to Laura Sullivan and the team who researched this:

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

Yeah. And,

[Corrections Corporation of America] declined requests for an interview. In a statement, a spokesman said the Corrections Corporation of America, "unequivocally has not at any time lobbied — nor have we had any outside consultants lobby – on immigration law."

At the state Capitol, campaign donations started to appear.

Read the whole thing and think, again, about how money is speech.