Public Safety and Profit: On the Same Wavelength?

So far, it has a lot of people wailing.

The Majority Begins to Cash In

If you're a lobbyist, you can't even buy a burger for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) under new House rules. But on Jan. 31, you can give "Hoyer for Congress" $1,000 and join him at a reception at the Hay-Adams Hotel.

For $5,000 from your political action committee, you can get really cozy with him at a "VIP private reception" that same night.

Hoyer's event will benefit his own reelection committee. But the Democratic National Committee is looking to cash in on its members in top spots on the Hill and will be featuring some new committee chairmen at fundraisers in the coming months.

Next Wednesday it's soliciting up to $15,000 per PAC for an event at Johnny's Half Shell honoring the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Lobbyists will donate lavishly and show up in droves, but they will also point out the hypocrisy. "I am prohibited from buying a staff member a $20 lunch, but I can pay $1,000 or more to talk with that staffer's boss at a political fundraiser," said Howard Marlowe, former president of the American League of Lobbyists. "That's not what I call reform."

Stop That Spin

Democrats have promised to practice the highest ethics as they take the reins on Capitol Hill. But the House's new travel ban is "being hyped as broader than it is," said Jan W. Baran of Wiley Rein & Fielding.

For instance, lobby groups can still take lawmakers and staffers on short trips -- limited to a day and a night or, possibly, two nights. Institutions of higher education, which spend hugely on lobbying, and nonprofit foundations can provide travel without restrictions. And lawmakers can use campaign funds to visit lobbyists' meetings -- and then hold a fundraiser once they get there to offset the costs.

"It's a partial ban," said Baran, one of Washington's top ethics experts. "But it doesn't have as many holes as the gift ban, which has 23 exceptions."

Democratic Hires of the Week

The Federalist Group, to no one's surprise, was once all-GOP, but it's been on a Democratic hiring spree. Its latest addition: Moses Mercado, ex-deputy executive director of the Democratic National Committee. It also plans to change its name to something less, well, Republican-sounding.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld last week snared a top Democratic tax lobbyist, Robert J. Leonard, formerly chief counsel of the Ways and Means Committee. Citigroup has hired two D's: Paul Thornell, who worked in the Clinton White House, and Robert D. Getzoff, formerly with Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). And the law firm Covington & Burling added former representative Michael Barnes (D-Md.) as a senior of counsel.

The revolving door rotated the other way, too. Daniel A. Turton, a former lobbyist for Timmons & Co., which represents corporate clients such as the American Petroleum Institute and DaimlerChrysler, is chief of staff to the House Rules Committee. Sean Kennedy, a former lobbyist for AT&T, has also returned to Congress as chief of staff to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Please send your tips and personnel news to kstreet@washpost.com.