In a Newsweek column this week, Robert Samuelson quotes yours truly in a piece on the expected stampede of lobbyists, influence peddlers, media consultants, paid "experts" and self-styled crusaders who will be coming to Washington with President-elect Obama in January. Samuelson writes that "paradoxically, Obama's ambitions for more expansive government will promote special pleading."

Samuelson, who authored the book The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath: the Past and Future of American Affluence, also makes a point on which I'm sure all lobbyists would agree: "Myth No. 1 is that lobbying is antidemocratic because it frustrates "the will of the people." Just the opposite is true: lobbying is an expression of democracy."

                                                                                                                    -- Bara Vaida