Meet the New Special Interests, Same As the Old Special Interests

You’ll ever guess who are licking their chops waiting for January to get here. The Hill reports that lobbying firms and other special interest groups are scrambling around looking for any Democrat they can get their hands on to help them cash in when the new administration takes office.

And it’s not just the special interests who are looking to hire Democratic lobbyists either. The Obama administration wants to fill the White House with them.

The Barack Obama campaign sought to keep lobbyists at arm’s length by not accepting their political contributions. But an Obama administration is likely to raid lobbying firms as well as congressional offices for talent. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, said in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that lobbyists will have a place in the administration. They just won’t be able to work on issues that affect their former employers or clients.

So, at the same time lobbying firms, companies and trade groups want to hire Democrats, they have a new competitor for the available talent: the new Democratic White House.

“It’s going to take a little bit of time to see who wants to work in the administration,” said Ivan Adler, an executive recruiter at the McCormick Group.

More than 3,000 new positions will come open due to the new administration, and already, “The demand for Democrats is pretty high and the supply of those who want the jobs is pretty low,” Adler said.

Yeah, that’s the change we waited for all right.

By the by, that jazz about the Obama campaign not taking special interest money is a crock considering how easy it was for the likes of A. Hitler and S. Hussein to contribute as often as they wanted without encountering even the most rudimentary security hurdle. The sheer illegality of Obama’s fundraising efforts will be one of those stories that will simply scandalize America somewhere around the end of 2009.

Tags: Barack Obama, Campaign Finance Reform, Corruption, Democrats