From a story by Tory Newmyer in today’s Roll Call:

Fearful of appearances as they make lobbying reform a centerpiece of their 2006 agenda, top Senate Democrats have decided to shut down their longstanding biweekly huddle with corporate lobbyists.
The decision to discontinue the meeting, informally known as the Monday Group, comes as Democrats step up their attacks on Republicans for their links to the Jack Abramoff scandal and seek to tag the GOP as a party too close to lobbyists….
Every other Monday when Congress was in session, the group would file into the DSCC for the afternoon conference. Democratic staff and lobbyists saw the meeting as a forum to strategize about tactics and messaging, exchange information about scheduling and talk over news of the day.
It was more common for Senate aides to attend the meetings than senators themselves, though the group did sometimes hear directly from the likes of Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who appeared at least twice last year. Other invitees included pollsters, advocates of ethics reform and, more unusually, reporter Nicholas Confessore, who was invited after he wrote a cover story for Washington Monthly magazine detailing the GOP’s K Street Project.

Roll Call reports that while the Monday Group has not met since December, Democrats plan to continue their weekly meeting with representatives of labor unions and other pro-Democratic groups. Nicholas Confessore, by the way, is now a reporter for the New York Times.