Lobbying's Big 25 Fortune 99Dec6 Follow the Money Jeffrey H. Birnbaum Hard money. Such is business as usual inside the Beltway. That would be disappointing, no doubt, but it would also be news.
Nobody needs to be told that Washington is a peculiar place.
You would expect the most powerful lobbying groups to also be the most popular ones. Votes, after all, are the coin of the realm, and elections are fundamentally congeniality contests. But this time around one of the most consequential lobbies was one of the least beloved. Even more amazing is that the gun lobby is ranked No. 1, ahead of the AARP, by lawmakers and congressional staffers, the people who really know. What isn't obvious, certainly to political professionals, is what method of legal bribery speaks the loudest.