The former Blunt chief of staff and big-time lobbyist gets front-page play in the Wall Street Journal this morning [sub req] (including one of those picture thingies). Nothing damning, but the piece points out how much more cozy the lobbyist-lawmaker connection has become in recent years. Here’s the beginning:

Nearly three years ago, Gregg Hartley left his job as a top aide to Republican Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri to become a lobbyist. Mr. Hartley began helping companies like BellSouth Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Viacom Inc. get audiences with Mr. Blunt and other top House Republicans and win some important legislative battles.
At the same time, Mr. Hartley was helping his old Capitol Hill boss raise campaign money and offering him political advice. Mr. Hartley is now assisting Mr. Blunt in his bid to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay as House majority leader. For the last three weeks, the lobbyist has offered strategic advice during regular visits to Mr. Blunt’s office in the U.S. Capitol, according to people familiar with the meetings.
Mr. Hartley’s dual roles highlight a practice that is becoming more common in Washington: Lobbyists are serving as principal fund-raisers for lawmakers they’re trying to sway.

And this factoid:

Federal Election Commission records show that 71 lawmakers now list lobbyists as treasurers of their re-election or political action committees. In 1998, the number was just 15, according to a review of FEC reports by the Center for Public Integrity. Lawmakers attribute the change to the sharply rising costs of running campaigns.

Also, it is notable how much a race like this is about money:

Both lawmakers are now recruiting congressional supporters for their majority-leader campaigns. Of the roughly 150 House Republicans who have announced who they will vote for, most have endorsed the candidate who has given them the most campaign money. Of Mr. Blunt’s 91 publicly announced supporters, 68 have received money totalling $690,000 from Mr. Blunt’s PAC, according to the Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, a congressional watchdog group.

Finally, I learned something important. Blunt’s leadership PAC, the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund, has always struck me as having a very clunky name and unpronounceable initials (ROYB?). But it turns that it is referred to as the ROY B fund, which clears up everything. Anyway, read the whole thing, a useful primer on how the GOP machine works, for better or worse.