By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Both winners of the Iowa caucuses sneer at lobbyists whenever they get the chance.
Democrat Barack Obama says he will severely restrict any former lobbyists in his White House, and Republican Mike Huckabee rejects an attack on his tax-cut proposal merely on the grounds that the criticism was devised by lobbyists.
But Washington is not cowed. On the contrary, lawmakers have been jumping to K Street at a dizzying pace, sometimes even before their terms are up.
The reason: No matter who wins in November, and regardless of the victor's view of "special interests," demand for lobbyists will be huge. Change always increases legislative activity and, therefore, lobbying activity, and government officials do not want to miss the gravy train.
Last week, former senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made it official that he is going into the lobbying business with former senator John Breaux (D-La.). Not only is Lott the first senator to resign his seat to become a lobbyist, he is also making the transition a family affair. Lott and Breaux will be joined by their two sons in the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group.
Last week also brought news that one of Congress's experts in capital markets, Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-La.), is in serious talks to head the lobby for hedge funds, those arcane, high-dollar investment pools. If Baker takes the job, as expected, he would resign midterm, as Lott did.
Executive search firms report that lawmakers are more open than ever to becoming lobbyists, so lucrative is the work. "It's a very hot market," said Peter T. Metzger of CTPartners. Lawmakers, he said, "are shedding their reluctance and saying, 'That's what I want to do to make a living.' "
Lobbying is "increasingly accepted, certainly in Washington, as a logical and honorable transition" from lawmaking, agreed Eric Vautour of the search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
Since 1998, 94 lawmakers, or 37 percent of those who left Congress for the private sector, have gone into lobbying, according to the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen. It expects that percentage to rise after the current Congress.
Lawmakers are not apologetic about the trend. "It's something that I find very interesting," Baker said about the prospect of representing the hedge fund industry. For that task, he added, "I have a particular skill set that's appropriate."
Critics such as the leading presidential candidates consider that use of skills entirely inappropriate. The tendency of lawmakers to become lobbyists, they say, weakens the chance that elected officials will advance the public good and gives voters the impression that Washington is corrupt.
But the pull of lobbying can be too strong for even the most devoted public servants. Lawmakers-turned-lobbyists were once the exception; now it's a surprise if senior congressmen don't retire early to join D.C. firms.
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 WeekWhen 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, FasterAt 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 WeekJ 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.
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