The urge to drape mundane or slightly disreputable work with a fancy title has been with us for a while. Thus garbage collectors are “sanitation engineers.” Prison guards, “correction officers.” Strippers, “exotic dancers.” This provided some good material for the late George Carlin and became pretty much organic in Washington where all bureaucrats are “administrators” and virtually nothing is called by its right name.  Once upon a time we had a “War Department” and a “Secretary of War.”  We still fight wars but now the job is handled by a “Department of Defense.”

So, of course, the people whose job is to influence legislators – by either lying or telling the truth, depending on which is more likely to be effective – don’t want to be called “lobbyists” any longer.  The word carries a certain stigma.  Which certainly isn’t the fault of the word, but never mind.  As Megan R. Wilson reports at The Hill: