The Heist on K Street

Business Week reports:

The conventional wisdom: Crass corporate lobbyists lavish millions of dollars on lawmakers in a transparent attempt to buy influence on Capitol Hill. But in the carpeted corridors of K Street, the 11,500 people who earn their living in the influence-peddling profession know a different reality. More often than not, they understand that money is vacuumed up to Capitol Hill by demands from members of Congress. "Everybody thinks it's the interest groups buying the members," says John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. "A lot of the time it's the members shaking down the interest groups."


Despite the guilty plea of fallen superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, Capitol Hill doesn't hesitate to turn to K Street for campaign cash. One prominent business lobbyist was so aggravated by attacks on his brethren by money-raising members of Congress that he collected every fund-raising invitation letter he received for a month. The total for January: more than 60. He dutifully sent checks for most even though he says that he has never asked half of those lawmakers for anything. "I'm doing it because it's expected," he laments. "If you want to be in the game, you've got to pay."

Kind of like paying a street tax to the Mafia.At least the Mafia doesn't claim they operate in the public interest.