Playground Retro

Daniel LaRusso: "You told me you fought a lot."
Mr Miyagi: "For life, not for points."
--The Karate Kid

Liberals have been bashing Senator Joe Lieberman, primarily because he has wavered in support of the Left's favored health care proposal. This particular tirade includes calls for boycotting charities that sport connections between Lieberman and big pharma.

Politics drips with hypocrisy. It is frequently observed that a particular bureaucrat (e.g., Joe Lieberman) has ties or connections to a particular interest group (e.g., big pharma) and subject to influence from that group. Typically, however, those folks doing the observing are tied to a different interest group (e.g., the Left) and are seeking to impart their own brand of influence (e.g., vote for the health care proposal that we like) on that politician.

One must conclude that the Left isn't upset that Mr Lieberman is subject to influence from interest groups, but that he currently is not kowtowing to the Left's influence.

As long as we operate a government that allows bureaucrats to allocate economic resources, then politicians are likely to have an 'interest.' And interest groups will fight each other like kids on the playground in an effort to influence politicians for a piece of the pie.