Pork

In recent years, I've walked the halls of Congress, meeting with staff members to discuss election reform.

But in my visits, I don't get face-to-face access with members of Congress that real lobbyists receive. Lobbyists get better access due to personal connections, campaign contributions and the many other favors they provide to legislators. It's these behind closed doors meetings where the real business in Washington gets conducted, meetings that typical constituents rarely receive.

And that's the problem with how business is done today in Washington.

It was just a year ago, back in January 2005, when Gov. Schwarzenegger said in his State of the State Address, "This year we must heal the patient" (the "patient", in his odd metaphor, being the state of California). To heal the patient, the governor argued that we had to do two things: reform the way the government spends money and the way the government operates.