On my way into work this morning I was listening to the Marketplace Morning Report pod cast. A few minutes in was a story called "Lobbyists prepare for greenhouse gas bill." To no one's surprise, the story was on how the bill's teeth are being pulled by the army of lobbyists who want to water it down as much as possible so it will have no effect on their energy clients. Same story different bill. But then I heard this juicy little nugget from a lobbyist for the energy industry:"But lobbyist Scott Segal says that's democracy at work. Scott Segal: As I tell my clients and as they tell me. Everyone is advised to have a seat at the climate change table." ((You can read and hear the story hear: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/06/greenhouse_gas...)I didn't know that the definition of "democracy" included tossing around campaign cash in order to get access to influence legislation for corporations and well-heeled special interests? I just checked. It doesn't. Democracy is about developing public policy that benefits all of us and not just those who can buy a seat at the same table Mr. Segal sits at.I used Google to do a quick search Scott Segal and came across a law firm that employees someone with that same name. Here's the description:"Bracewell & Giuliani LLP is a prominent international law firm with more than 400 lawyers in Texas, New York, Washington, DC, Connecticut, Dubai, Kazakhstan and London. We serve Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, leading private investment funds, governmental entities and individuals concentrated in the energy and financial services sectors worldwide."Interesting locations. Texas. Washington, DC. Dubai. Kazakhstan. Smells like Texas tea and whole lot of energy money to me.The audacity of lobby firms to try and sell pay-to-play politics as "democracy" is disingenuous at best. We need to let the Segal's of our country know that elections are about us and not his big money clients and political donors. The only way to do this is by pushing and advocating for a system that frees our elected officials from the dash for campaign cash.