A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

In a major story this week on Washington's newest growth industry, TIME describes the phenomenal rise in numbers and clout of the capital's lobbyists and influence peddlers. "It is a revolving door for those who are willing to hawk the connections and access they gained while in office," says Senior Editor Walter Isaacson, who supervised the story. "With tax reform, trade policies and the budget now facing Congress, the effect of influence peddling could become a major political issue."

The chief reporter for the story was White House Correspondent David Beckwith, who has examined Washington influence peddling before. In 1978, as a staff writer in New York City, he wrote a cover story on the power of lawyers, including those in the nation's capital. Observes Beckwith: "Washington lawyers were the hot item of that day, when they helped businessmen thread the mazes of Government regulation. Today an influence seeker needs someone to help him fight for a piece of a shrinking federal pie. Those lawyers have had the game taken away from them."

Despite the apparently pervasive power of Washington's corps of influence peddlers, Beckwith believes that their interests do not always prevail. "On major issues," he says, "the weight of public opinion, fear of public exposure and the moral fiber of elected representatives seem to ensure that the public interest is recognized -- and served." Beckwith concludes that "the best and brightest lobbyists know how to come up with good political reasons for a legislator to advocate their private client's interests."

Associate Editor Evan Thomas, who wrote the story, is no stranger to the intricacies of doing business in Washington. As a Capitol Hill reporter from 1981 to 1983, Thomas covered the burgeoning growth of political-action committees and their effect on campaign fund raising and other activities for a TIME cover story that ran in 1982. Thomas returned to Washington recently and, with Beckwith as his guide, made a kind of Cook's tour of the new influence peddlers, visiting the offices of top Washington lobbyists like Tommy Boggs, the son of Louisiana Congresswoman Lindy Boggs; Anne Wexler, former aide to President Jimmy Carter; and ex-White House Majordomo Michael Deaver. The experience, says Thomas, provided him with an updated view of Washington -- and gave a special immediacy to this week's story.