ABSTRACT
Widespread scandal and public opinion helped to fuel Senator Barack Obama’s nonstop attack on the role of lobbyists in American politics, starting as the Democrat’s ethics and lobbying reform leader in the US Senate in 2006, continuing in his 2008 election campaign, and repeated in 2009 and 2010 with his sustained attempts as president to change the culture of lobbying and influence in Washington. Lobbying is a profession that has been deeply sullied in the last five years by the illegal actions and conviction of Jack Abramoff, the criminal convictions of Representatives “Duke” Cunningham (bribes for earmarks) and Bob Ney (accepting illegal gifts from lobbyists), the resignation and conviction of Representative Tom DeLay (illegal use of corporate campaign funds from lobbyists), the conviction (later overturned) of Senator Ted Stevens (illegal gifts from lobbyists), as well as the criminal conviction of 21 lobbyists, former congressional aides, and executive branch officials (illegal gifts to members of Congress). More recently in 2009 and 2010, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) was asked to step down as chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and after a lengthy investigation and trial before the House Ethics Committee, he was convicted on 11 counts related to breaking House Ethics gift ban and travel rules associated with lobbyists. In 2009, the House Ethics Committee investigated Representatives Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), Peter Visclosky (D-ID), John Murtha (D-PA), Norm Dicks (D-WA), and Jim Moran (D-VA), all on the House Appropriations Committee, for the reciprocal exchange of campaign contributions for earmarks from corporations through PMA, a now defunct lobbying firm owed by a former House Appropriations subcommittee committee staff director (Milbank 2010b).
