‘Swamp-Dwellers’ In Full Panic Mode Over Lack Of Trump “Access” – “A Lot Of Lobbyists Are Scrambling”
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Nov 18, 2016
The lobbying game is simple. The first step is to work on “The Hill” for a while to build up your sphere of relationships and influence. Of course, you don’t have to work in an elected capacity, being a high-level staffer for a prominent Senator or Congressman is more than sufficient. Then, after you’ve hobnobbed with enough people on The Hill to be deemed worthy, you get recruited by a lobbying firm just down the road that’s willing to pay you several multiples of your government salary in return for peddling your newly acquired influence. And, so you join the lobbying ranks where your sole mission is to peddle your influence to rake in millions of dollars from wealthy special interests.
But, in 2016, there’s just one problem: Trump. For the past 12 months Trump has toured the nation telling his voters that he has every intention to “Drain The Swamp” in Washington D.C. and lobbyists are the epitome of everything that regular Americans see as broken with the system.
Needless to say, the prominent lobbying firms of Washington D.C. are in full-on panic mode. As BuzzFeed notes, presidential transitions are typically business as usual for the lobbyist because “normal” administrations are staffed with Washington insiders. But, that’s not the case with Trump.
And while control of Washington shifts between parties will normally mean some reshuffling of the lobbyist deck, most on K Street are good enough at the long con to have solid relationships on both sides of the partisan divide to stay busy through the lean times.
But at least in the early stages of this year’s transition, Trump and his crew are turning that pattern on its head.
“The reality is that right now, Trump world is very small so access is very limited,” said Kyle Downey, president of Downey Communications and a veteran Republican strategist.
“Anybody who says they know how this going to work is kidding themselves, and their clients,” said a lobbyist with a bipartisan shop. “A lot of lobbyists are scrambling, because the biggest issue is access.”
The Rest…HERE
