While Candidates Decry Lobbying, Ex-Lawmakers Embrace It

Rep. Jim McCrery (La.), the ranking Republican on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, shocked many observers recently by announcing that he will retire at year's end. In another era, McCrery, 58, would never have given up such an influential position. Today, he sees nothing unusual about the move and does not hide that he might go into lobbying. The move from lawmaker to lobbyist, he said, is "a natural transition."

Don't tell the good folks of New Hampshire.

Gimmick of the Week

When President Bush brought leaders from the Middle East to Annapolis last year, the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem flooded the State Department and other offices with calls from people who did not want to see Jerusalem partitioned.

The way the interest group made that happen was a new twist in influence peddling. The organization directed supporters to a Web site -- CallsForJerusalem.org -- and asked them to fill out a form with the names of the offices they wanted to contact and their own telephone numbers. Within a few minutes, the site automatically called the offices -- the White House, the Israeli Embassy or the State Department -- and dialed the supporters' phone numbers, connecting them at no cost.

"We generated about 700 calls an hour -- that is a call every five seconds -- with each call lasting about 30 seconds," said Jeff Ballabon of the Ballabon Group, which handled the technology for the lobby group. "We have created a new way, literally, to give a voice to the pro-Israel community's thoughts."

Other voices, on other subjects, are sure to be heard in this same high-tech way. Think of the method as e-mail by telephone.

Founding Fathers, Faster

At the end of last year's session of Congress, lawmakers slipped a provision into law that directs the archivist of the United States to come up with a plan to hasten the online publication of the papers of America's Founding Fathers.

The measure was a victory for former congressman Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.) and his client, the Pew Charitable Trusts.

More than 200 years after they were written, large portions of the papers are still decades away from being published. That prompted Andrews and Pew to lead a distinguished group of scholars and federal officials to pressure Congress to speed the process along.

The advocates, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, persuaded congressional appropriators to direct the archivist's National Historical Publications and Records Commission to develop a plan, due in 90 days, to put the papers online.

The step was a long time in coming. Teams of scholars have been laboring since Harry Truman was president in the late 1940s to compile and annotate the letters, correspondence and documents of George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Only the papers of Alexander Hamilton have been finished, largely because the scholars did not have as many to comb through. Hamilton died in his late 40s after a duel with Aaron Burr.

Hire of the Week

J ames M. Assey Jr., a former senior Democratic counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, has been named executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Assey becomes the second-ranking executive at the cable industry lobby group as well as its highest-ranking Democrat. He reports to Kyle McSlarrow, the association's president, who was a deputy secretary of energy and a senior aide to two Republican Senate majority leaders, Trent Lott and Robert J. Dole (Kan.).

Assey served on the staff of the Commerce Committee from 2001 until last month. Prior to that, he was an associate in the Washington office of the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Please send e-mail tokstreet@washpost.com.