A Detroit News column documents the immense power wielded by one Michigan congressman since the mid-1950s.
“A Tribute to John Dingell” was a typical D.C. shakedown operation by politicians who are the gatekeepers of legislation that can make or break companies — a result of the enormous concentration of power in Washington that has paralleled Dingell’s record-breaking 57 years in office.
What happens in Washington stays in Washington.
Back home, Democrats like Dingell position themselves as populist protectors of the common man. But in truth, the massive regulatory bills that they write inside the D.C. beltway have reduced consumer choice and marginalized small business — while favoring big corporations that can afford the lobbyists necessary to navigate the capital’s thicket of rules.
From auto mpg rules to utility emissions caps to that mother of all regulations, Obamacare, Washington politicians now oversee vast swaths of America’s economy thought unimaginable when Dingell took office in 1956. …
… Among the most important of Washington’s fiefdoms is the Energy and Commerce Committee, through which so much regulation must pass. As chairman, Dingell earned the nickname “Torquemada” — demanding respect from friend and foe alike.
“I don’t know why anybody would be afraid of me,” Dingell said in a film made especially for tribute night — to nervous twitters from the crowd. “We do conduct, up at oversight, a few modest little investigations.”
It was said that Chairman Dingell regulated “anything that moves, burns or is sold.” So every lobbyist worth his salt was in the Hyatt ballroom that night to honor him. Merck bought a table for $7,500 because few could do more to destroy drug companies than the Commerce chairman.
“In other lines of work they might call this protection money,” quipped [Wall Street Journal columnist Paul] Gigot.
Perhaps the Hoover Institution’s Peter Schweizer had the right idea when he wrote a book titled Throw Them All Out.
