“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.)”

“If you ask most Americans about the NRA, they will think of the National Rifle Association. But another powerful industry trade group bearing those initials, the National Restaurant Association, conducts its own campaign of duplicitous lobbying and outright deception at the expense of the public interest,” Al Jazeera reports.

“Restaurants employ more than 13 million workers, so it is no surprise that industry lobbyists are paid a lot of money to ensure this workforce remains disempowered. The NRA, which has a staff of 750 people, spent more than $4 million in 2012 alone currying favor in Washington, D.C. But with recent fast-food strikes and restaurant workers increasingly speaking out against low wages and other forms of labor exploitation, the mask of the other NRA is slowly peeling away.”

“Congress didn’t get much of anything done last year, but you wouldn’t know it looking down K Street,” Politico reports.

“Washington Inc. experienced only a minor squeeze, continuing to hum along even as Congress failed to pass the kind of bills that lobbyists are paid top dollar by corporate clients and other special interests to influence — like an overhaul of the Tax Code, immigration reform or a major deficit package.”

“The fact that big business is just barely scaling back on its spending for hired guns in a year when Congress is expected to do even less and a year after the economy was still weak is a testament to the resilience of Washington — and the firms that have thrived in the economy around it.”

“The avalanche of cash that made Washington rich in the last decade has transformed the culture of a once staid capital and created a new wave of well-heeled insiders,” the Washington Post reports.

“The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible. They are the entrepreneurs attracted to the capital by its aura of prosperity and its super-educated workforce. They are the lawyers, lobbyists and executives who work for companies that barely had a presence in Washington before the boom.”

Political Moneyline finds that 19 organizations spent more than $1 million on lobbying last quarter.

“Lawmakers hoping for a respite from Washington’s intense lobbying climate won’t get a break back home during the August recess,” the Washington Post reports.

“Once a lull in the political calendar, August is now officially part of the high season. An array of interest groups has methodically plotted how to use the congressional recess to press causes.”

“The sophisticated operations aim to drive a political narrative throughout the month, hoping to produce a strong display of voter sentiment that lawmakers will not be able to ignore when they return to Washington after Labor Day. At that point, they will immediately contend with a showdown over the budget, a House debate on immigration reform and the launch of new state health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act.”

New Republic: “Washington lobbyists are required by law to disclose who they work for, how much they get paid and what issues they advocate for. But they’re not obliged to mention it when they do other work–like, say, appear as a policy expert at a think-tank event… We found at least 49 people who have simultaneously worked as lobbyists for outside entities while serving as top staff.”

Bloomberg: “Since the November elections, at least 22 members of the last Congress took jobs with lobbying firms, running trade associations or handling government relations for organizations. That would increase by 14 percent over 2012 the number of former lawmakers now in the lobbying business… Since 1998, a total of 338 former members of Congress have worked as lobbyists or joined such firms for at least some of the time since leaving office.”

Wonk Wire: What most people would call lobbying now falls outside of its legal definition.