If you build it, they will need to come (and lobby)

Barack Obama – like John Edwards before him – and, I dare say, the majority of Democrats hates (or pretends to hate lobbyists). To listen to Democrats talk you might be think that lobbyists are (with nasty trade with foreigners of course) the greatest threat to the future well-being of the United States.

And indeed there is something discreditable about the lobbying explosion in Washington in recent years. Still, however regrettable elements of the lobbying industry may be it seems pretty clear to me that removing or curtailing the right to petition your government would be a pretty severe infringement upon a pretty fundamental liberty.

Furthermore, to the extent lobbying does in fact corrupt the business of government it’s largely because, well, the business of government has become lobbying. Or rather, as this excellent article by Jeffrey Birnbaum in the Washington Post magazine makes clear, it’s now all-but impossible to run a major business without representation in Washington.