NYTimes: The Capitol’s Rich Afterlife

Senator Trent Lott’s sudden decision to retire from public office has Washington’s lobbying industry salivating at the prospect that the Mississippi lawmaker may join the millionaire’s row on K Street. That’s where more and more Congressional alumni have been hanging their backslapper’s shingle to lobby old buddies. Mr. Lott’s planned departure — conveniently ahead of [...]

Metropolitan Corporate Counsel: Why The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Is High On Everyone’s Radar Screen

The Editor interviews Michael Schwartz and Rocco de Grasse, principals with KPMG LLP, whose practices involve investigation of and prevention of FCPA violations.

The Advocate: Breaux plans to start lobbying firm

Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux is leaving his position as a lobbyist with a top Washington law firm, Patton Boggs, to start his own firm with his son.The announcement from Breaux, a Louisiana Democrat, is fueling speculation that he may join forces with U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican who announced his retirement earlier [...]

Politico.com: Rudy calls billing ‘perfectly appropriate’

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his senior aides Thursday blamed anonymous bookkeepers for his administration’s practice of billing the travel expenses for his personal security detail to obscure city agencies.

Politico.com: Lott’s brother in law Scruggs indicted on bribery charges

Sen. Trent Lott’s brother-in-law, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a high profile trial lawyer best known for suing big tobacco and insurance companies, has been indicted on bribery charges.
Several media outlets are reporting the news about Scruggs, who has been accused of trying to bribe a Mississippi judge. Scruggs is perhaps best known for suing tobacco companies in multi-billion dollar lawsuits in [...]

Baltimore Sun: Edwards floats anti-lobbyist (and Clinton) pledge

Pledges have become quite the rage in politics over the last decade or so — Grover Norquist’s no-tax-increase pledge most famously — but usually it’s candidates who sign them. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards turned the tables this morning, unveiling a web site that asks voters and caucus-goers to pledge their allegiance to candidates who [...]

LA Times: Turns out, some Obama PAC money came from PACs

Before he ostentatiously stopped taking money from political action committees to run for president, Sen. Barack Obama quietly took money from political action committees.
As a presidential candidate, Obama claims to be an outsider eager to shake up the Washington establishment by refusing to accept donations from political action committees and Washington lobbyists. This year, they’re [...]

The Hill: Trade groups question new lobbying law

Trade groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce say a new lobbying law could require the release of their member lists, violating freedom of association protections granted by the Constitution.
The Chamber, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Society of Association Executives wrote Senate Secretary Nancy Erickson and House Clerk Lorraine Miller on [...]

IHT: US government ordered to release telecommunications lobbying records

An electronic privacy group challenging President George W. Bush’s domestic spying program scored a minor victory after a judge ordered the federal government to release information about lobbying efforts by telecommunications companies to protect them from prosecution.The Electronic Frontier Foundation in January 2006 filed a class-action suit against AT&T Inc., accusing the company of illegally [...]

NYTimes: House Cleaning

After months of delay, a legislative task force is now expected to recommend the creation of an independent office to goad action and accountability from the House’s ethically challenged ethics committee. In a bipartisan ode to the unrocked boat, the committee sat passively through corruption scandals in the last Congress that put two lawmakers behind [...]