They don't see much difference between lobbying for highway funds and slanting foreign policy toward a particular interest group. One former U.S. diplomat joked last week that politics still stops at the water's edge, only now it's the waters of the Bosporus. A former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas. The Congressional Black Caucus often sways Haiti policy. Non-proliferation crusaders rule on North Korea.
Farmers bend trade policy.
Christian groups dominate discussion of Sudan, whose Muslim-dominated government is waging war on the largely Christian south. Cuban Americans resist any easing of sanctions on Havana. Part of the problem is ideological. Without a Soviet foe, the foreign policy agenda has become diffuse, with congressional power now spread among committees on banking, finance, appropriations, judiciary and the environment. Part of the problem is institutional.