The Wolves of K Street
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The Wolves of K Street

The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government

Luke Mullins and Brody Mullins
Simon & Schuster, 2024
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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Eye Opening
  • Background
  • Hot Topic

Recommendation

Behold the lobbyist: that silver-tongued figure clandestinely pulling the levers of power. In this detail-rich study of half a century of influence-peddling, journalists Brody and Luke Mullins paint a portrait of K Street denizens that is even more craven than the stereotype. They describe the colorful careers of such master influencers as Tommy Boggs, Lee Atwater, Paul Manafort, and Tony Podesta. While each was associated with a particular political ideology, their true motivations seemed to be money and power. This depressing but important tale will engage readers of all political stripes.

Summary

The modern age of corporate lobbying began in the 1960s.

Tommy Boggs — a Washington influencer so smooth that he became known as the “King of K Street” — played an outsized role in creating the modern-day lobbying industry. Boggs gained entry into the halls of power through his family: His father, Hale Boggs, had been a high-ranking Congressman before he died in a plane crash in Alaska in 1972. The elder Boggs was a big-government Democrat who helped create a variety of new regulatory agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The younger Boggs, on the other hand, worked on behalf of free markets and looser regulation. Tommy Boggs operated in a world of duck-hunting junkets and political action committee contributions. “I love the game,” Boggs once said in an interview.

Tommy Boggs entered lobbying in the 1960s, when this brand of influence-peddling was in its infancy. In 1961, just 130 US companies used lobbyists, and those firms tended to operate in defense contracting, broadcasting, or telecommunications — all tightly regulated sectors. Generally, US companies weren...

About the Authors

Brody Mullins is an investigative reporter in the Washington, DC, bureau of The Wall Street Journal, where he led the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Luke Mullins is a contributing writer at Politico magazine.

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