An Online Guide to Fast-Moving Power Brokers

Sucking in public servants, spewing out lobbyists, K Street spins influence into cash so fast, it's tough to track who landed where.

Now you can click and find out. Billed by its creators as "MySpace for the K Street set," Revolving Door is a new, searchable database on OpenSecrets.org that gives Washington watchers and the merely envious the intel they crave.

Revolving Door -- http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving-- can find anyone whose résumé includes government service and lobbying, legal or public affairs work. Search for a name or a former employer, or click on an administration or an agency, a lawmaker or a committee, and a stable of past staffers drops down for your sleuthing or lunching pleasure. Lists of big hitters, top agencies and firms along the left side of the site help the uninitiated.

Revolving Door was created by the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that has expanded its activities beyond tracking campaign finance into operating a Web-based money and politics clearinghouse. It's paid for by the Sunlight Foundation, which sponsors activities that use technology to illuminate the power web of Washington.

People on the site "are the most wired people in town, the ones who have worked in both government and on the private side and can move freely between those two realms," said Massie Ritsch, the center's communications director.

"This is an insiders' tool that will be used to tell really interesting stories . . . about how influence is accrued in this town."

Right now the site includes 5,000 names and welcomes additions, tips, comments and corrections. Its opening was timed to coincide with the start of the new Congress, Washington's equivalent of the pro basketball draft, with lobbying firms and congressional offices competing for top talent, Ritsch said.

More than a guide for finding old colleagues and lost loves, he said, "this is a late Christmas gift for headhunters."