“Attorneys general are now the object of aggressive pursuit by lobbyists and lawyers who use campaign contributions, personal appeals at lavish corporate-sponsored conferences and other means to push them to drop investigations, change policies, negotiate favorable settlements or pressure federal regulators,” an investigation by the New York Times has found.

“A robust industry of lobbyists and lawyers has blossomed as attorneys general have joined to conduct multistate investigations and pushed into areas as diverse as securities fraud and Internet crimes. But unlike the lobbying rules covering other elected officials, there are few revolving-door restrictions or disclosure requirements governing state attorneys general.”

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) had federal lobbyist John Feehery participate in multiple official interviews with job candidates last month for the new majority whip’s press operation, Politico reports.

“Sometimes lawmakers rely on lobbyists for strategic advice. But inviting a lobbyist into an interview is highly unusual. Several ethics lawyers and current and former leadership aides said they have never heard of a similar arrangement.”

“You see former quarterbacks and all-star baseball players just moving seamlessly into the media and they’re treated with reverence because they know the game. Why wouldn’t the same be true for people who know the political game?”

— Former Rep. Toby Moffett (D-CT), quoted by Roll Call, defending ex-lawmakers who become lobbyists.

Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Jon Tester (D-MT) “introduced legislation to prevent members of Congress from becoming lobbyists after they retire,” The Hill reports.

“Current law allows senators to become lobbyists two years after leaving office, while House members only have to wait for a year. But Bennet and Tester’s bill would institute a lifetime ban on lobbying for lawmakers.”

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson “is deploying a state-level political network he has been quietly developing over the past few years,” the Washington Post reports.

“Many of the beneficiaries of Adelson’s state donations are now siding with the billionaire as he seeks to outlaw a practice he views as a threat to the economic health of the casino industry on which he built a personal fortune.”

The FBI “is exploring whether confidantes of Gov. Sam Brownback (R) operated influence-peddling operations in Kansas pivoting on personal access to the Republican governor and top administration officials,” the Topeka Capital Journal reports.

“Of concern to the FBI were behind-the-scenes financial arrangements related to Brownback’s privatization of the state’s $3 billion Medicaid program. The governor’s branding of KanCare handed to three for-profit insurance companies exclusive contracts to provide Medicaid services to 380,000 of Kansas’ disabled and poor.”

Two months ago, former Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA) “announced she would be heading up the Coalition for Consumer and Online Protection, the outfit erected to fight Sheldon Adelson’s proposed poker ban,” according to Ralston Reports.

“Turns out that just a month earlier, Bono approached Adelson lieutenants to try to help fight the American Gaming Association-sponsored effort to block the Las Vegas Sands chairman. In emails I have obtained, Bono clearly was angling for a contract with the folks she now says are so misguided.”

Jeffrey Birnbaum “gets credit for writing the book about the 1986 tax reform act. Now, it seems, the co-author of the inside-the-Beltway classic, Showdown at Gucci Gulch, is getting some credit for helping to derail tax reform,” the Washington Post reports.

“Birnbaum’s book – which he wrote with Alan Murray – chronicles the unlikely triumph of a handful of Washington officials over the well-heeled lobbyists who lingered in the hallways, trying to get what their clients wanted, during the Reagan-era debate over tax reform. These days, it’s Birnbaum who’s got clients to represent – and he’s using what he learned back then to help them get what they want in any rewrite of the tax code – and block what they don’t like.”

The Republican lobbyist “hawking a bill that would bar gays from playing in the National Football League has a younger brother who is gay,” the Huffington Post reports.

Said Jim Burkman: “He is my brother and I love him, and we don’t see eye-to-eye on any political issues, certainly gay rights. But I told him years ago he should back off on gay issues, and if he ever crosses the line I would be happy to speak up as his gay brother. Today I felt he crossed the line.”

Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman said he is preparing legislation that would ban gay athletes from joining the National Football League, The Hill reports.

Said Burkman: “We are losing our decency as a nation. Imagine your son being forced to shower with a gay man. That’s a horrifying prospect for every mom in the country. What in the world has this nation come to?”

He added: “If the NFL has no morals and no values, then Congress must find values for it.”

The New York Times uncovers “gaping holes in rules governing Washington’s revolving door.”

“Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill… At least half of those departing aides, the analysis shows, faced no restrictions at all.”

“The rules are particularly loose in the House of Representatives, where aides and lawmakers enjoy significant leeway in hopping from job to job — and from government pay to six- and seven-figure private sector salaries.”

“As of this week, nearly 250 former congressional employees can legally begin lobbying their former colleagues, the Sunlight Foundation‘s post-employment lobbying tracker reveals. Included in that list are 71 former members of Congress, some of whom already have secured berths at K Street influence shops even before they were legal to lobby. (House members must wait one year after leaving office before embarking on a lobbying career; for former senators, the cooling-off period is two years.)”