In Michael Moore's newest movie, Sicko, he attacks the American health care industry, with an emphasis on the insurance industry (HMOs). But in between telling us the stories of people whom the insurance agency has failed and taking 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba, he talks about the health care lobby's effect on campaign finance.

He starts out with the example of Hillary Clinton (D-NY) -- former First Lady, Senator from New York, and current presidential hopeful -- who made health care her priority when her husband was president. She attempted to get government run healthcare for all, but the bill failed in the Senate. One would think that someone so passionate about a specific topic would keep fighting for what they believed in, especially if given the opportunity to serve in the United States Senate. But according to Moore she is now the second largest recipient of campaign donations from the health care industry, and has stopped talking about universal health care, taking in $835,511 from the health care industry (opensecrets.org). I think that this has got to be more then a coincidence.

Once again we see a government official leaving a powerful post in the government in order to enter into a lucrative lobbying job using his high profile connections. Robert S. Nichols, a former spokesman for the Department of Treasury has signed on to two major lobbying groups.

The first being the Financial Services Forum President, a powerful lobbying group comprising 20 of the nations key financial services groups including Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The second being a group called Engage China which is trying to open China's massive market to financial products like auto insurance. From these new posts, Nichols continues to promote the Treasury agenda leaving many to wonder, "is Nichols still working for the Treasury Department?"

Recent comments by a Treasury Spokeswoman seem to indicate Nichols'continued interest in Treasury affairs and his success in getting treasury officials to pressure China into lifting the moratorium on foreign investment in Chinese Security Firms. This, of course, benefits Nichols tremendously by helping the forum. To be sure, we will probably see more of these cases in the future.

If everything goes as planned, it looks like we can finally get some movement on ethics...and not a moment too soon!

Last November, voters overwhelmingly voted to send legislators a message: ethics are important. Don't believe me? Take a look at the exit polls. 74% of voters said that ethics was either "very important" or "extremely important." Since voters made that statement, we've had scandals involving Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Mark Zachares, Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)...and scandals involving the Justice Department, specifically the ousted attorneys who were investigating people like Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). There are also the Bush Administration officials that either are under investigation or who resigned in disgrace. And finally, there is the lobbyist at the center of it all, Jack Abramoff!

I don't know about you, but this is all getting a little hard for me to keep track of. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anyone left in Washington who doesn't have a Common Blog smart tag with their name on it! It's time for Congress to finally get serious on ethics reform. Lobbying reform would be a great way to start...