Lobbyists? What Lobbyists...?

Lobbyists Pull All-Nighters
By Jim Snyder

For lobbyists, the cost of a $789 billion economic recovery package can be measured in sore thumbs, lack of sleep and delayed vacations.

Rarely, if ever, has a bill consumed the influence industry as much as the stimulus package, the largest government intervention in the market since the New Deal.

Automakers, arts advocates, coal companies, film producers, drug makers, construction workers, college presidents, airlines, oil refiners and even duck hunters are tracking the bill. What’s duck hunting have to do with a bad economy? Nothing, really. But Ducks Unlimited urged its membership to call Senate and House offices to support the bill for its money to pay for wetland restoration.

After a tough 2008 in which revenues at top firms fell, the stimulus package has been a boon to K Street’s economy. Hundreds of firms, companies and trade groups registered to lobby on the recovery package this January, usually a sleepy month in Washington.
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Source: The Hill

Note: I'm just curious...of course, we're being told that there are NO (ahem) earmarks in the stimulus bill. Well, maybe a few, but not many. Not enough to shake a stick at. Yet, the lobbyists are congregating at the boon docks in Washington. Next thing you know, we'll be seeing fleas congregating where there is no dog.