Lobbyists

As John McCain and Barack Obama intensify their battle for the White House, they are competing for the mantle of reform, with each claiming that he has done the most to shield his campaign from the taint of lobbyists. But the strategists behind those efforts are senior aides with a more-than-passing resemblance to -- what else? -- lobbyists. Obama is well ahead of McCain in restricting lobbyist participation in his campaign.

One afternoon two summers ago, labor union lobbyist Barry Broad sat through a dull legislative hearing at California's ornate Capitol building. As lawmakers droned, he fell into a daydream. Broad, an avid news consumer and armchair geopoliticist, began pondering the Middle East, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. "What if CIA secret agents could engineer a Chernobyl-like nuclear meltdown that would stymie Iran's ambitions to build a nuclear bomb?" Broad mused.

The lobbying firm of John McCain's campaign manager was paid $15,000 a month for several years until last month by one of two housing companies taken over by the federal government, a person familiar with the financial arrangement said Tuesday night. That money from Freddie Mac to Rick Davis' firm was on top of more than $30,000 a month that went directly to Davis for five years starting in 2000.

Since President-elect Barack Obama laid out plans for the largest injection of federal spending into the economy since the New Deal, just about everyone has started angling for a piece of the action.

When money manager Bernard L. Madoff was arrested in New York recently for allegedly engineering a massive Ponzi scheme, Wall Street financiers were left slack-jawed at the unmasking of an establishment figure who seemed to be an unlikely fraud. The reaction was similar among many politicians in Washington. For years, Madoff was a generous donor to mostly Democratic causes and maintained a steady lobbying presence through the government relations firm of a former New York congressman.

Returning to power after 12 years, House Democrats on Thursday elected Nancy Pelosi as the first female speaker and moved swiftly to adopt rules to rein in the influence of lobbyists. Pelosi, also the first Californian to lead the House, and new Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) put President Bush on notice that they intend to press for a new policy on Iraq.

Jack Valenti is busily scripting the end of his legendary life. But, even after 85 years, it's very much a work in progress. Valenti, who ended his 38-year run as Hollywood's leading man in the nation's capital more than two years ago, continues to work five days a week as something of an icon-on-call.

Senators are ready to relinquish lobbyist-paid steak dinners and skybox seats at sports arenas. But giving up the use of corporate jets at bargain prices may be one reform too many for them. Although a ban on using corporate jets flew through the House last week, it faces strong political headwinds in the Senate, which began debate Monday on its own ethics overhaul. The legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.

A former Bush administration official, once described by Jack Abramoff as "our guy" at the Interior Department, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to Senate investigators probing the scandal surrounding the convicted Republican lobbyist. J. Steven Griles, a coal mining official who was deputy to Interior Secretary Gale A.

While pledging to turn down donations from lobbyists themselves, Sen. Barack Obama raised more than $1 million in the first three months of his presidential campaign from law firms and companies that have major lobbying operations in the nation's capital. Portraying himself as a new-style politician determined to reform Washington, Obama makes his policy clear in fundraising invitations, stating that he takes no donations from "federal lobbyists."