HOW HE SEES IT Golf and the well traveled legislator

By JOHN HALL
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Records are being broken for free trips by congressmen to the great golf courses of the world, paid for by private sponsors who often have direct interests in legislation on Capitol Hill.
One of the leading recipients of such largesse, according to the Center for Public Integrity, has been the new House Majority Leader, John Boehner, R-Ohio, an avid golfer and a world-class traveler.
He took 42 trips between 2000 and 2005 with his wife Debbie, adding up to half a year of visits to other countries and "golfing hotspots" of which nine days were at personal expense. In addition, he flew 45 times on corporate jets, including 15 on Reynolds Tobacco's plane.
His staff says these all were "educational" trips. The center judged Boehner to be one of Congress' most frequent fliers, but his staff said the study merely shows how thorough his reporting and disclosure have been.
What was he learning?
Without question, there are excellent reasons for members of Congress to go overseas. Sometimes it is even a good idea to go on unofficial missions without the restraints of public funding.
But traveling to golf resorts as an educational undertaking takes some suspension of disbelief. Perhaps there are foreign policy lessons hanging in the mists of Scotland, a favorite destination of many legislators traveling on the corporate tab.
It is possible that contemplating whether Sunnis or Shiites should be in charge of Iraq's Defense ministry is, to an important leader like Boehner, comparable to choosing between a five iron or a seven iron to get the ball over the creek on the first tee at St. Andrews, as Walter Mears of the AP might put it. Golf has many choices to offer politicians -- backspin, sidespin, topspin.
The new congressional crackdown on lobbyists, in a similar way, is not producing nearly as much spin as many had thought it would. For every ban on gifts and limitation on meals rotating through the legislative process on Capitol Hill, there seems to be a new loophole spiraling around it.
Jeffrey Birnbaum, The Washington Post's full-time reporter on the lobbying business, says ingenious new ways are being found to get around the crackdown that followed the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal. Instead of lobbyists paying for lunch, executives may be flown in from corporate headquarters to pick up the tabs. Ideological and grass roots organizing groups are stepping in to organize discussion meetings with senators and House members at hefty fees with big dollar donors and lobbyists.
Most disturbing of all, there does not seem to be any letup in the easy tolerance that has developed for public officials accepting lavish gifts and hospitality from private interests.
What is most disappointing about Boehner is that he was supposed to be the antidote to Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the leader of the House who was forced to step down in the midst of the Abramoff investigation because of a separate money-laundering scandal in Texas. DeLay used strongarm tactics to promote an alliance with Abramoff's "K Street Project" of Republican lobbyists.
Globetrotter
Now Boehner has rolled in with a list as wide as the Ohio of golf outings and steakhouse fundraisers, all-expense trips to Japan and Europe, including Edinburgh, Venice, Brussels and Barcelona.
To suggest that taking all-expense-paid trips overseas is all right just because the trips have been "promptly and publicly" reported is to twist the reason for having a public disclosure law. Public disclosure does not validate the acceptance of the gift. That is for voters to decide. The law requires that the facts come out of the darkness; it doesn't bless them.
Some voters and even some reporters may assume, without even looking, that everything is fine and dandy just because some information has been made public. So far, that appears to be what Boehner and others are banking on.
A change in behavior is not what Boehner has in mind, because he has already taken issue with House Speaker Dennis Hastert's proposal to end travel paid for by private interests. Boehner, instead, wants enhanced disclosure.
More information along with a loosening of public attitudes toward free golf trips appears to be the goal here.
X John Hall is the senior Washington correspondent of Media General News Service. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.