You say sympathetic ear...

Sarah Smith, manager of the K Street Project, wrote a letter to the Post today criticizing a characterization of the K Street project as an effort to place conservatives in powerful positions with lobbyist groups.

The editorial "DeLay, defiant, departs" (April 5) inaccurately explains the K Street Project. It says that U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, conservative activist Grover Norquist and superlobbyist Jack Abramoff "created the 'K Street Project,' actively recruiting young conservatives for lobbying jobs."

Mr. Norquist started the K Street Project in 1989. The goal of the K Street Project was and is quite simple: encourage the business community to hire for principle, not access.

Yet this Roll Call article from 2001 describes efforts on the part of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa) and others to do exactly that (via Talking Points Memo).

With high-profile positions opening up at lobbying giants such as the U.S. Telephone Association and BellSouth Corp. in coming months, Senate GOP Conference Chairman Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and a group of well-connected Republican lobbyists plan to compile a list of candidates they will push for those posts.
...
"We control the White House, the House and the Senate," noted a well-connected Republican lobbyist familiar with Santorum's plans.

"The people who are doing the hiring and the recruiting [of top lobbyists] have to remember that. We're just going to remind them of that fact when they're out there looking, they better look for a Republican first."

Santorum's latest attempt to boost the GOP's profile on K Street is part of a continuing philosophical battle that has raged in Washington since the Republican revolution of 1994.

"My perspective is, we want to have people at associations who will be receptive to our message and be fair to our proposals," Santorum said

The article goes on to describe efforts by Former Majority Leader and K Street Project mastermind, former Congressman Tom Delay (R-TX), to use strong-arm tactics to obtain Republican representation in lobbyist groups.

In January of this year, Santorum spoke as if the term "K Street Project" was news to him.

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