Ian Murphy: The 9 Most Loathsome Lobbyists in Washington

Tis the bleak post-Citizens United season in America: Money equals speech, and corporations, super PACs, and an egregiously wealthy minority have the biggest mouths in the land, but the oligarchs' work is never done. After the elections are bought, it's back to the business of business and, presumably, consuming yacht loads of caviar and foie gras. Maximum profit demands that figh powered lobbyists grease the wheels of legislation or grind them to a shrieking halt, whichever yields the highest return. For your entertainment, below is a list of some of the most depraved lobbyists money can buy: Chris Dodd: The former Connecticut Senator, and internationally renowned eyebrow haver, isn't the most prodigious scum in the Beltway swamp, but he may be the most hypocritical. When asked in 2010 what would follow his thirty year legislative career, which ended amid financial scandal, Dodd bluntly said, "No lobbying, no lobbying." He then promptly became, as the Hill put it, "Hollywood's leading man in Washington, taking the most prestigious job on K Street," as chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. The gig comes with a $1.2 million annual salary, and complimentary tickets to the Academy Awards: Dodd's most public, and ultimately ill fated advocacy was in pushing two potentially disastrous bills: The Stop Online Piracy Act, and its Senate counterpart, Protect IP Act, both of which would have given the federal government the right to shut down any website that was merely being accused of copyright infringement. The bills were shelved indefinitely after a massive online protest in which thousands of sites went voluntarily dark for a day. Dodd ironically called the blackout an "irresponsible abuse of power." So it's OK for the Feds to make your site go black, but it's not OK for you to do it yourself.