  The elastic contribution to the first moment of $g_2(x,Q^2)$ is analysed
using a Drell-Yan-West type of relation and is shown to be negative. For a
qualitative estimate the one-loop contributions to the polarized DIS sum rules
in QED are studied. The behaviour of the generalized Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum
rule is sensitive to infrared regularization. With a lower threshold for the
gluon virtuality the relation of the generalized GDH sum rule to the
Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule is studied. We conclude that the elastic part has
to be included for long range interactions but can be consistently discarded
for short range interactions.
