Why does it seem that most of our "elected reps" & staff steer towards lobbying?

[ShockediSay]

Armey, Lott, Daschle, Tauzin and now ???

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/business/03regulate.html

Dodd Calls Obama Plan Too Grand


The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee warned on Tuesday that the Obama administration’s new proposals to rein in Wall Street firms ran the risk of derailing months of delicate negotiations over overhauling financial regulations.

“It’s not a movable feast,” the chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, told Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, who has become an influential outside adviser to President Obama. “It’s adding to the problems of trying to get a bill done,” he said at the end of a hearing on the proposals, after all the other committee members had already left.

[Robbien]

1. The Secretive "Blob" On Capitol Hill That's Blocking Any Hope Of Financial Reform

A secret club of current Senate staffers and Wall Street lobbyists is dragging down the chances for meaningful financial reform.

Staffers on the powerful Senate banking committee are part of what is known as "The Banking Blob," a person familiar with the matter told us. The Banking Blob is made up of current banking committee staffers and former staffers who are now bankers or lobbyists. They frequently socialize together, often organizing happy hours and parties.

"They move in a pack. They socialize together," the person says. "Hell. They even inter-marry."

The Blob is made up of both Republican and Democratic staffers. Outsiders tend to think the Blob members view themselves as "cooler" than other Capitol Hill staff members. Often a job on the banking committee leads to a well-paying job for a Wall Street firm or a position at a K-Street lobbyist law firm.

"The very worst example of the revolving door in Congress," is how the person described the Blob.

"The idea that these people would actually develop legislation that Wall Street opposes" is a joke, the person said. "They are genetically incapable of doing it."

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-secret-banking-blob-on-capitol-hill-that-destroys-the-possibility-of-financial-reform-2010-2



Does that answer your question?

[zeemike]

2. For the same reason that Willy Sutton robed banks.

Because that is where the money is.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. I'd like to see the word 'lobbying' replaced with a more proper term

INFLUENCE PEDDLING