A Lobbyist's Progress

A Lobbyist's Progress: "A Lobbyist's Progress
From the December 20, 2004 issue: Jack Abramoff and the end of the Republican Revolution.
by Andrew Ferguson
12/20/2004, Volume 010, Issue 14

IN HONOR OF THE TENTH anniversary of the fabled Republican Revolution--for precisely a decade has flown by since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, following forty years of Democratic darkness--let us pause from our noise-making and silly-hat-wearing to ponder the story of Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon. They have lately been much in the news.
Abramoff was until recently a registered lobbyist, and Scanlon offers himself as a public affairs specialist, but more precisely they are what Republicans in Washington used to call 'Beltway Bandits,' profiteers who manipulate the power of big government on behalf of well-heeled people who pay them tons of money to do so. Sometime around 1995, Republicans in Washington stopped using the term 'Beltway Bandits.'"