Akkam’s Razor

Via Businessweek:

The conventional wisdom: Crass corporate lobbyists lavish millions of dollars on lawmakers in a transparent attempt to buy influence on Capitol Hill. But in the carpeted corridors of K Street, the 11,500 people who earn their living in the influence-peddling profession know a different reality. More often than not, they understand that money is vacuumed up to Capitol Hill by demands from members of Congress. “Everybody thinks it’s the interest groups buying the members,” says John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. “A lot of the time it’s the members shaking down the interest groups.”

And, our own dear Senator Specter participates:

A not-so-movable feast was hosted by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Lobbyists for warring sides of the asbestos trust fund legislation were invited to a $500-a-head, $1,000-per-PAC event at Specter’s Georgetown apartment on Feb. 6. Specter says it was coincidental that his annual birthday fund-raiser was scheduled one day before the Senate debated the asbestos bill, which Specter co-sponsored. “No special group has been targeted,” Specter says.