THE RETRIEVER WEEKLY April 11, 2006 Opinion 9 Hammer time to stop own personal gains, and embrace some sort of from DELAY, page 6 publicly funded campaign system, interests will the K Street lobby and both houses of Congress. continue to plague our Congress and damage the The Republican leadership is in the pockets of ability of representatives to truly represent the will very powerful lobbies, and as such they pander a of their electorate. Money is power and power is great deal to these interests. Does that mean the corruption and corruption is the problem here. Democrats are immune to these sorts of scandals? Get the money out and watch the system correct Absolutely not, and if you look into the past, itself. This, of course, would require more than there are a great number of corrupt Democrats just legal changes and there would have to be a unworthy of serving our nation. personal commitment to act differently from the The problem is that politicians are treated members of our government, something which is like upper-class, super-elite Americans, who far in the future, if even possible are better than everyone else, know better, and can act outside of our interests when they see Aaron Ludensky would like to remind fit. Politics is about money and influence, when his readers that he‚Äôs really not as zealous as it should be about doing the most good for the comes off. He can be reached for comment at most people. Until both sides realize that they [email protected]. have betrayed the good of the masses for their

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ELVIS COSTELLO Live with the Friday, April 21 & Saturday, April 22, 8pm One of the world’s greatest singer/songwriters teams up with one of the world’s greatest orchestras. Elvis Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Costello joins the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in this 1212 Cathedral Street · Baltimore, MD groundbreaking performance, featuring his first orchestral work, Il Sogno, “,” based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and selected Costello ballads Tickets from just $34. including “" and “God Give Me Strength."

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