I've thoroughly enjoyed watching House of Cards. Sure it's not accurate, exactly. But what it does emphasize so well is the difference in pursuing money versus power. The latter can be bought by wooing lobbyists. Money itself is harder to gain and generally more associated with the developing world's modes of corruption. Are they so different? Not exactly. However one difference is power is less easily extractive than wealth. As an example: A wealthy corrupt official will likely pull money out of the system and into their own private offshore account. A politician using lobbying money to ascertain power in exchange for political direction is not banking money outside the system. Of course the lobby-backing commercial interests are, indirectly. But at least these companies are focused on more than sheer family-enrichment. Still, I wish we had a better system.