One thing that seems to frustrate many Americans is the way our political leaders seem to be more concerned about the interests of foreign countries than our own. I think the resignation of Mark Penn as Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist is a telling example of why this is. The problem was that Mr. Penn was working for the nation of Columbia to help get the Columbian Free Trade Agreement passed through Congress. Hillary Clinton has been opposed to the agreement and removed Mr. Penn because of the conflict of interest.

But this is not the only example of a high level political adviser, bureaucrat, or ex-office holder that has gone to work for a foreign nation. Another example is the former Secretary of State James Baker. He co-chaired the Iraq Study Group, a commission to look at the best way to deal with the situation in Iraq. However, at the same time, his law firm was representing the Saudi government in lobbying matters. Now Saudi Arabia is very concerned with the situation in Iraq , the outcome will have a tremendous affect on their country.

So how can we know for sure that James Baker was representing the best interests of the United States in this group? Is it possible that he may also have been representing the interests of his client Saudi Arabia? Does it seem unreasonable that the Saudi government would try to influence Mr. Bakers recommendations in the study group? I don't think so. These are two examples, I am sure that there are many more.

To end this we need to support government ethics reforms such as the proposals by John McCain, and Barack Obama. Hillary's government reforms mention this a bit but I think her approach does not go as far as McCain's or Obama's. The point is that we the people need to demand that lobbyist influence in government is drastically reduced, especially lobbyist of foreign governments.

- Thomas Paine 2

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