The New Reformers
"A year ago, Denny Hastert was defending a rule to allow indicted members (especially with the initials T.D.) to keep their House leadership jobs, the speaker now wants to crack down on questionable ethical practices. Not long ago, Rick Santorum was helping run the K Street Project, a mechanism for the GOP leadership to pressure trade associations to hire Republicans. Now he's the point man on reform.
Most Democrats weren't exactly storming the gates to change the rules either until lobbyist Jack Abramoff became an albatross they thought they could hang around the GOP's neck.
I think the press, with a few exceptions, had been snoozing about this issue until the Abramoff tale heated up. Only recently do we read that the number of lobbyists in Washington has doubled in the past few years, to 35,000. Only recently do we read that half the former members of Congress are lobbyists."
- posted by geoff @ #