Democratic Foot In Revolving Door

:argh: :argh:

http://public.cq.com/docs/cqw/weeklyreport110-000002538605.html

Democratic Foot In Revolving Door
By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff

Months before Democrats recaptured control of Congress, some Washington lobbying firms sensed the way the wind was blowing and started hiring more Democrats to represent their clients.

In fact, even as Democrats campaigned on a promise to reduce the influence of lobbyists at the Capitol — in response to the Jack Abramoff case and similar influence scandals — several of their old congressional colleagues were picking up choice new K Street jobs.

Former House members Chris John of Louisiana and Max Sandlin of Texas, for instance, both of whom lost races in 2004, were among the first wave of beneficiaries. John was picked in March 2006 to be managing director of Ogilvy Government Services; Sandlin became co-chairman of Fleishman-Hillard’s Washington lobbying office in November, a few days before the midterm election. “There’s a new dynamic in Congress under the new Democratic majority, and it has been good for Democrats working on K Street,” said John.

But it hasn’t been good for the party leadership’s efforts to enact stricter lobbying legislation that might, in the words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in January, “close the revolving door between government officials and lobbying firms.”

In particular, the Democratic joining of the K Street gold rush has helped to undermine Pelosi’s bid to create a two-year “cooling off period” before departed members of Congress and senior staff members may begin directly lobbying their former colleagues at the Capitol. The current waiting period is half as long, which ex-lawmakers find annoying but not debilitating to their lobbying careers.

The Senate passed the longer ban at the start of the year, but the House spurned the idea last month after a chorus of Democrats balked, with many of them stating openly that they did not want to harm their prospects for a lucrative career after lawmaking. (Instead, the House bill would require members of Congress to disclose any negotiations for lobbying jobs and recuse themselves from issues that would aid potential employers.)

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re-balancing - no big deal

Indeed lobbyists main job is giving information to the hill - it is good to have a few Democrats with a presumed Democratic slant conveying that information.

Bribes and near bribes from lobbyists are mainly campaign contributions and campaign work - and only Federal funding of elections will stop that - until then, this is the system.

The writer of the article seems most angry about the level of pay the former Democratic Party legislators receive and would only be happy if they were reduced to minimum wage workers.