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K Street Project

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The K Street Project is an effort by the Republican Party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. It was launched in 1995 by Republican strategist Grover Norquist and then-House majority whip Tom DeLay. It has been criticized as being part of a "coziness" between the GOP and large corporations which has allegedly allowed business to rewrite government regulations affecting their own industries in many cases (see Dick Cheney energy task force).

Shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, DeLay called prominent Washington lobbyists into his office. He had pulled the public records of political contributions that they made to Democrats and Republicans. According to Texans for Public Justice, "he reminded them that Republicans were in charge and their political giving had better reflect that—or else. The "or else" was a threat to cut off access to the Republican House leadership." [link]

The project is named for K Street in Washington, D.C., where the largest lobbying firms have their headquarters. Lobbying is sometimes referred to as the "fourth branch of government," as they have great influence in U.S. national politics due to monetary resources and the "revolving-door" policy of hiring former government officials. It is widely believed to be common practice for politicians to solicit money from lobbying firms in exchange for better access to officials, especially members of the United States Congress, and to buy favoritism in policies.

Candidates seeking to succeed DeLay as majority leader sought to distance themselves from the project, and as of January 15, 2006, all three announced candidates had vowed to dismantle it and overhaul the lobbying process. The Senate's Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, passed March 29, 2006, bans senators from using their influence on the hiring practices of lobbyists "on the basis of partisan political affiliation".

Contents

The dossier

In 2002 the Washington Post reported on the existence of a dossier compiled by the project, keeping tabs on which lobbying firms and individual lobbyists gave to which politicians and parties. An unnamed GOP lobbyist source told the Washington Post that "you will have this list to control access" to the White House, Congress, and Federal agencies.

According to the New York Times, Grover Norquist claimed "it's an ongoing project that's been updated over the last several years, and this is the most recent iteration." Norquist claimed that the object was "letting people know how many R's and D's are being hired" by certain interest groups, so that these groups would hire more Republicans to represent them.

As a result of this exposure, a letter circulated in Congress reminding members and Senators that it was a violation of ethical standards to limit lobbyists' access based on their political contributions.

The Abramoff connection

Members of Congress in both parties are promising to reform the rules for lobbying Congress in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal. Abramoff, a top Washington lobbyist, was a prolific contributor to Republican political campaigns, and has recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. His campaign contributions, lavish golf trips, jobs that required little or no work, and expensive meals for congressmen and their staffers are the focus of a criminal investigation.

Efforts by Republicans to distance themselves from the project

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who served in the House before 1994, has often been described as the Senate liaison to the K Street Project, as he met with Norquist on a regular basis to review openings at lobbying firms and the leading candidates for those positions. As the Abramoff scandal broke and grew, however, he denied the extent of the role attributed to him. He claimed his meetings with Norquist were not as frequent as asserted, that he did not know Norquist that well and that he was unaware of a file keeping track of campaign contributions by lobbyists and their firms.

He took particular umbrage at claims to the contrary by Senate minority leader Harry Reid, saying they amounted to libel, although he did not deny that meetings took place. He referred to them as "good government" efforts. He claimed he had not seen Norquist in years, but later the liberal blog Crooks and Liars posted a video clip of the two of them sharing a podium at a June 28, 2005, press conference.

Norquist, however, claims that at a 2002 meeting with Santorum and lobbyists he described the project to them. A contemporary report says he described its goals and asked those present to help complete the project. He passed out a list of lobbyists the project was checking on. At that time Santorum did not comment.

Later that year, Norquist publicly commented, "(Santorum) has gotten me in to talk to all those guys."

Santorum also had publicly criticized the Motion Picture Association of America and Boeing for hiring former Clinton Administration officials, but said that was unrelated to his meetings with Norquist.

Roll Call also reported that Abramoff himself attended one of Santorum's meetings in 2001. Santorum says he might have attended but does not specifically recall that.

After the disclosures, Santorum announced the jobs list would no longer be part of the meetings.

Defenses of the K Street Project

The few Republicans and political conservatives who have chosen to defend the project claim that after 40 years of a near-total Democratic control of Congress, most of the top lobbyists in Washington were former Democratic congressional staffers and aides, since lobbyists are valued for their access to power more than their political ideologies. They might be more loyal to their party and former employers than their present ones.

In fact, Republicans claim, Democrats in Congress had informally done the same thing and forced lobbies to hire former staffers of their own. In this view, the K Street Project was simply a way of ensuring that those lobbying in Congress had political views in line with those who hired them to lobby. Labor unions, they noted, hire people to advocate for them in Washington who share their viewpoints regardless of their access to power.

Trademark application

On April 6, 2006, Norquist applied, through his organization Americans for Tax Reform, for trademark protection for the term "K Street Project." When the story was reported the following week, he suggested it had been unfairly maligned by the media coverage of the scandal and that it was in fact simply a job-listing service. He promised to enforce it vigorously if it were approved, saying "We will sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money."

Democrats and liberals ridiculed the idea, with blogger Josh Marshall wondering if Norquist was trying to corner "exclusive rights to engage in organized corruption under this title in the environs of Washington, DC." Others, like Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, accused Norquist of trying to keep the term from being associated with Republican corruption in an election year (However, it would take the application a year and a half, well after the election, to be approved at the Patent and Trademark Office's usual pace).

Contrary to Norquist's public statements, his formal application requests trademark status only for the project's actual logo (see above).http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/k-street-project-trademark/?resultpage=1&

References

04-06-2006

External links

 

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