The change on K street

The NYTimes talks about the massive shift in the lobbying job market as Republicans suddenly find themselves surplus and junior Dem aides are suddenly gold.

Despite all the chattering by the talking heads, this would be a substantial change to how Washington works. Tom Delay's "K street project" was unprecedented in the way it manipulated and extorted from lobbying firms, and now a good portion of those hirees and actors are out on the street. (The think tanks and issue groups can't take them all.)

(This is especially vicious because there are suddenly so many more Republican legislators and lifelong aides getting tossed.)

But it's bigger than the last 8 years. There has been a Republican administration or Congress since 1980 for Republican lobbyists to target, with only one brief two year exception from 1992 to 1994, and now it looks very likely there will be neither for awhile.