Lobbying's Good Guys? On the Campaign Trail, They're Invisible.

Woodrow Wilson, leaving the White House with wife Edith in the back of a Pierce-Arrow in 1919, practiced a gentler brand of lobbyist-bashing. (Woodrow Wilson Birthplace)

But unlike Pacelle and Bass, she is not distressed by the candidates' comments and policies. She's grown accustomed to the nastiness that surrounds her profession.

"I have a tough skin," she said. "If I took offense, I couldn't do this job."

Besides, she said, lobbyists are easy targets, especially in the simplistic world of presidential rhetoric. "Politics is like coloring books," she explained. "The reality is much more complex."

Many lobbyists for causes less altruistic than Campbell's feel exactly the same way. They like to point out that the First Amendment protects the right to lobby for any interest, including the corporate type.

That won't make lobbyists likable, of course. But, nonprofit advocates ask, is it too much to expect a presidential candidate to recognize the difference between a white hat and a black one?

Fight Over Pan Am 103

The State Department has opened negotiations with the government of Libya to settle a variety of claims, including those lodged by the families of Pan Am Flight 103, the flight bombed by terrorists nearly 20 years ago, claiming the lives of 189 Americans.

Remarkably, the Libyans still owe each family $2 million of the $10 million they promised in compensation for the horrific attack.

The families' cause is represented in Washington by the lobbying firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, which is headed by former Clinton administration official Jack Quinn. The firm stands to be paid what amounts to a standard lobbying fee, which can amount to more than $300,000 a year, if the Libyans pony up. To that end, it has been bringing victims' family members to town to plead for justice, including, recently, Kara Weipz of Cherry Hill, N.J., whose 20-year-old brother, Richard Monetti, was killed as he was traveling home for Christmas from a semester of study abroad.

Libya also has an active lobbyist. The Livingston Group recently signed an eye-popping $2.4 million contract to represent the government here. But Robert L. Livingston, the firm's co-founder, is not resisting the victims' pleas.

In fact, quite the contrary.

"We don't have anything to do with the cases; we're working on trying to enhance the relations between Libya and the U.S.," he said. "But it's my hope and anticipation that those cases would be settled in the not-too-distant future."

Why? "Settlement of those claims would certainly enhance the relationship between those countries." We'll see.