Behind the lobbying curtain

Washington Post: Classically a good news story offers the unexpected: "Man bites dog." But when it comes to money in politics, that test may be backward. What matters are the stories that illuminate business as usual, business that's usually conducted behind closed doors.
One example was the story last week, by The Post's Thomas B. Edsall, describing a Kansas energy company's plan for spreading around enough campaign cash to persuade Congress to insert a provision favoring the firm in the pending energy bill. The second, by Robert Pear of The New York Times, features confidential documents detailing the lobbying operations of one of the most powerful interest groups, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Taken together, they offer an unusually candid look at how things get done in Washington -- a picture that is as disturbing as it is predictable, and disturbing because it is so unsurprising.
The campaign contributions story outlines efforts by Westar Energy Inc. to "get a seat at the table," as one company executive put it, while lawmakers craft the energy bill. This was one pricey chair: $56,500 to campaign committees associated with key GOP lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas.
One of them, Rep. Joe Barton, Texas, sought contributions for fellow Republicans, according to Westar e-mails, and inserted the exemption sought by Westar -- withdrawn after the company became the subject of an unrelated grand jury investigation. Mr. Barton's spokeswoman said "absolutely and unequivocally" there was "no quid pro quo whatsoever" between the contribution request and the Westar amendment. Of course, the campaign cash dance doesn't need to be choreographed quite so explicitly when everyone knows the basic steps.
Fantasies?
Our favorite quote in the story comes from Mr. DeLay's spokesman, Stuart Roy, whose boss met with Westar representatives last year: "We have no control over any fantasies they might have about what they might get for a campaign contribution." The company gave $25,000 in soft money to a political committee with ties to Mr. DeLay.
The drug industry documents reported by The Times are impressive not just because of the size of PhRMA's effort -- $150 million for the coming fiscal year -- but because they pull back the curtain on the cutting-edge, multilayered dishonesty of modern influence peddling. In the Washington influence racket, it's not just hired guns buttonholing lawmakers anymore.
PhRMA does plenty of that, budgeting $5 million for a bipartisan battalion of some of the biggest lobbying talent around. But the modern lobbying arsenal also features a host of hall-of-mirrors techniques by which special interests amplify their arguments through seemingly unconnected third parties.