Exile on K Street

In January the powerful Alexander Strategy Group shut down its public operations faster than merchants peddling pirated DVDs on Canal Street who hear the cops are on the way. The well-connected Republican lobbying firm, founded and run by former senior staffers of embattled ex-House majority leader Tom DeLay, explained that the publicity from the Jack Abramoff mega-scandal had fatally damaged its business. On the surface, it appears to be the fall of a major player in the GOP's K Street Project, which has made lobbying a highly partisan industry. But don't count out ASG: Already, according to the Washington Post, most of its lobbyists are setting up a "successor firm."

While ASG spins its problems as collateral damage from the Abramoff affair, it's hardly the victim of an errant public relations bomb. In fact, the firm was deeply entangled in several of the Washington scandals. Its swift shutdown offers a rare X-ray of the elaborate lobbying shell game that trades access to lucrative government contracts for funds to fill the campaign war chests keeping Republicans in power. Founded by DeLay's former chief of staff, Ed Buckham, ASG was a centerpiece of this game. In a recent report, Public Citizen lays out the rules: "In this partnership, corporations, trade associations and lobbying firms are pressured to hire only Republicans.... Those lobbyists then help the Republican leadership to 'whip on the outside'--to get Republican members of the House to vote for the leadership's legislative agenda. The lobbyists also raise enormous sums of money from their clients to ensure that Republicans remain the majority in Congress. For this fealty, the leadership grants the lobbyists access to the decision-makers and provides legislative favors for their clients." ASG had close ties to Abramoff, shared clients with him and had an overlap with some staff. The firm offered what few lobbying houses could: instant standing with the most powerful Republicans and a shortcut to the most lucrative contracts in Congress.

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