Half of the members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense are being investigated by congressional ethics panels.

The lobbyist who wasn’t a lobbyist during last year’s presidential campaign will head up a newly created Washington lobbying firm.

Despite the Obama administration’s alleged aversion to lobbyists, it turns out, surprise, that lobbying may have continued unabated in Washington.

Unlike his wife Linda, who runs a lobby shop in Washington, Tom Daschle is not a registered lobbyist.

At what point does a client become so radioactive that no amount of money warrants continuing the relationship?

Politico reports today that the American Conservative Union tried to engage in “pay to play” for its endorsement in a battle between FedEx and UPS.

In the past year, top bailout recipients including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup have dispatched dozens of former congressional staffers and ex-government officials to lobby their former bosses on the financial rescue package.

Consider it a tale of two congressmen in the crosshairs.

The latest addition to former Congressman Bob Livingston’s stable of foreign governments as clients is Libya, which signed a $2.4 million contract with the firm last year.

The founder of PMA Group, Paul Magliocchetti, and nine members of his family donated a total of $1.5 million to political campaign chests from 2000 to 2008.

Only a few years ago, Democrats feared being frozen out of Washington’s lucrative lobby business. Now, though, with the party controlling the executive and legislative branches, it is Democrats who are being snapped up right and left by K Street firms.

Companies that have been awarded billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money continue to donate large sums to political campaigns.

Five large pharmaceutical companies and the industry’s trade group donated $172,500 to a charity founded by Sen. Orrin Hatch, their longtime ally in Congress.

Back in September, when Congress was debating the financial bailout, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went on Fox News to decry how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had so “many politicians beholden to them” that no one would step up to protect American taxpayers.

It turns out that it’s no easy thing to stock a new presidential administration with policy experts who have never worked as lobbyists - especially when the Democratic party has been out of power for eight years.

In another example of the revolving door between government and industry, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker Jr. has hung out a shingle as a strategic adviser to Japanese companies doing business in the U.S.

Hunter Biden, the lobbyist son of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden, has quit the business in an apparent effort to shield his father and his father’s running-mate, Barack Obama, from negative political fallout.

Harriet Miers, former White House counsel and unsuccessful U.S. Supreme Court nominee, has returned to her old law firm, but with a new portfoliio - as a registered agent for the Pakistan People’s Party and the Embassy of Pakistan.

Can Google maintain the company motto - “Don’t be evil” - while building a powerful lobbying machine?

That’s just one of the challenges facing the internet giant. Another is Microsoft, a competitor not only on the web, but in the courts and the halls of Congress.