In A Spot - 211205

The next installment. Seeking to downplay the money-for-questions episode, Ms Tavleen Singh offers this cure:

Systems need to be put in place that would permit legitimate lobbying and more transparency generally in the way our elected representatives and governments function.

Perhaps she would care to go through the travails of a Mr Jack Abramoff in the heaven of legalised lobbying, the US. The New York Times has provided just the concise summary of it here. There are no passionate arguments and denouncements that blogs like this carry. Just the facts. An excerpt:

Prominent party officials, including the former House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, are under scrutiny involving trips and other gifts from Mr. Abramoff and his clients. The case has shaken the Republican establishment, with the threat of testimony from Mr. Abramoff, once a ubiquitous and well-connected Republican star, sowing anxiety throughout the party ranks.

Shaken and not merely stirred? When lobbying is legitimate? How can that be?