Congress for Sale

This is the biggest threat to our democracy and the by-product of Tom Delay's K-Street project. We must have publicly financed local, state, and federal elections with set amounts of free advertising on the airwaves. All other campaign finance reform is window dressing.
Hill a Steppingstone to K Street for Some
More Ex-Lawmakers Who Join Private Sector Are Becoming Lobbyists, Study Says

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; Page A19

Election to Congress used to be an end in itself. Now, for nearly half of federal lawmakers, it is a steppingstone to a second career: lobbying.

A new study has found that 43 percent of the 198 House and Senate members who left government to join private life since 1998 have registered to lobby. Of the 36 senators who left during that period, half have joined the lobbying ranks.

Republican lawmakers have become lobbyists at a faster rate than Democrats, a fact that reflects GOP control of the White House and Congress in recent years. Nearly 52 percent of Republican lawmakers who moved to the private sector since 1998 have registered as lobbyists, the study said. Only a third of departing Democrats took the same path.
Congressional historians say that lawmakers rarely became lobbyists as recently as two decades ago. They considered the profession to be tainted and unworthy of once-elected officials such as themselves. And lobbying firms and trade groups were leery of hiring former members of Congress because they were reputed to be lazy as lobbyists, unwilling to ask former colleagues for favors.