Are you ready to hear the sound of the world’s tiniest violin?
Retiring lawmakers are likely to find a tough job market next year on K Street.
Several lawmakers — many of them veterans with centrist bonafides — plan to retire after the 2014 election, making them prime recruits for lobby firms, trade groups and corporate boards.
While corporate headhunters see a future on K Street for many of the retiring lawmakers, they warn that sluggish lobbying revenues and gridlock on Capitol Hill are depressing demand.
“With revenues down, it’s not going to be as fruitful. It will slowly pick up but we are still in a slump when it comes to government relations and lobbying,” said Chris Jones, managing partner of CapitolWorks.
Jones said that lawmakers out of work in 2015 will “need to be creative when it comes to finding their next job.”
That might mean taking not one but several jobs: working in venture capital, heading to academia, or sitting on corporate boards while doing a little lobbying on the side.
Doesn’t this just break your heart?
Oh my God. I hate sad stories like this especially at Christmas time. Could we not start up some sort of collection for them?
The link is broken.
Minimum wage for K Street! Supply and demand, ya know.
Yes… that is a pity. Being elected to congress is a job. It had ceased being “public service” a long time ago and is now a job no different from any other job.
Perhaps this is part of the problems with congress. There is little public service going on and lots of self-promotion. How do we find more public servants when everyone hates everyone else?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/in-no-one-we-trust/?hp&rref=opinion
“It’s hard to know just how far we’ve gone down the path toward complete trust disintegration, but the evidence is not encouraging.”
Pretty darn far, I’d say.
Yes, they’ll need to do what they can. Extended unemployment benefits are out of the question.
I’m sure wal mart needs stockboys.
Bright and healthy stockboys and stockgirls. Congressional retirees would fail one or both of the tests to measure those qualities.
the horror…the horror…
cue my tiny violin
It is indeed ponderous to contemplate a member of obstructionist gang walking through doors where salesmanship to get something done is a cornerstone of the job. And then there’s the thought that they’ll be expected to come up with a counter plan for their new masters not just go to lunch after they’ve delivered their ‘no’ message.
Speaking from my 20 hours/week perch, in debt up to my eyeballs, I’m wondering if these guys can hire me to play the tiny violin for them. I need the money.
In my view, if K street were to shut down completely, that would go a long way toward allowing our democracy to work. So if the violin plays, I won’t be listening.
As these “retirees” choose not to face the electorate in another election, why should they be allowed to push their agenda from the shadows with no accountability to the people and collecting a hefty paycheck?
Give these vermin a choice — a ten year ban on lobbying after leaving office or forfeiture of all current and future benefits earned from their term in office.
seems fair. unfortunately, they would have to vote on it.
Question: what percentage of the electorate supports the revolving door between the Hill and the lobbyists? Hell, let’s also include the revolving door between the WH and lobby groups.
Make it a simple campaign issue in every single (fking) race and we’ll see action on this in far less time than anything else takes in DC. (Also a huge number of rats escaping the ship to get out and onto a lobbying vessel under the wire. But maybe some really smart person can figure out a way to prevent that as well.)
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