Kent Cooper Quotations

You don't know where the trip went. You don't know who went on it. You don't know if a lobbyist was on it.

One tribe has been reported with over 75 different names.

Now you've got someone admitting exactly what the motivation was and explaining all the avenues they used.

Because we can't see a lot of their activities, people wonder how big they are and how active. There is a hazy line between indirect and direct involvement in elections.

Because tribes do not file campaign finance reports, it is not possible to compare or double-check the amounts received by candidates and reported on the candidates' campaign finance reports.

The question is, what did they get in return for that?

When you look at a corporate leader or a union leader, or a lobbyist, saying, why would they give $10,000, is it part of their lobbying plan for some type of access buying. It opens the whole arena up to questions in the public's mind.

You're talking about standard operating procedure here in Washington suddenly being turned on its head and a key operator signing a plea agreement that he may have been involved in some kind of public corruption.

This is one of the largest examples we've had to date where congressional action was predicated on money being given for the action.

There's a lot of groundwork that these leadership PACs can do that can be instantly translated into presidential support. You're making contacts throughout the country. When you announce a candidacy, those people already know about you.

There's always some hot-button issue where it's a slugfest by industry.

It's fairly common over the years no matter what party one comes from, that senior administration officials often move to lobby firms or lobby for various clients because they know who to contact, at what time, and can instantly get their calls returned. Their speed and skill lobbying is what makes them valuable.

It's probably an indicator of someone who's organized, someone who's dedicated, who's investing the time and energy early on.

That's a huge expense. Most of these pre-presidential-type candidates will do this and use their leadership PACs as much as possible.

The fear is that you'll have some hearings and then they will degenerate into partisan bickering and name-calling, with members of Congress claiming a holier-than-thou approach and possibly the public might start to laugh at them ... And that would probably further turn off voters and increase the cynicism and therefore nothing would change,