When Colorado Republican Senator Wayne Allard ran for reelection against Democrat Tom Strickland, Allard’s ads attacked Strickland as a “millionaire lobbyist,” and consistently referred to him as “Lawyer-Lobbyist Tom Strickland.”
At the Capitol Club in downtown last week, a top local Republican asked Allard about “the role of lobbyists in sustaining entitlements,” according to Denver Post reporter Lynn Bartels. Allard, in responding, seems to have dropped his anti-lobbyist rhetoric: “From my experience, if you took the lobbyists out of Washington you’d be in trouble….”
Neither Allard nor the Denver Post noted a relevant fact: Allard himself is a registered federal lobbyist, representing a handful of small-to-medium business. Remember when Chris Dodd laughably claimed that he was making lobbyists cry by freezing them out — before taking one of the highest-paying lobbying jobs in Washington? Or “prairie populist” Byron Dorgan repeatedly denouncing lobbyists in his book despite being married to a lobbyist and then joining a top lobbying firm?
Next time you hear a politician bashing lobbyists,
