WASHINGTON -- It is a world, at least in the public eye, o long lunches and short phone calls. For a price, the story goes, you can have easy access and influence in a town you barely know, a guide who can open the right doors and talk to the right people.
The people who provide these introductions are the lobbyists for foreign countries and companies, men and women whose clout makes them valuable commodities in a city where clout commands a high price.
But after decades of operating in the shadows of Washington, they have increasingly been thrust into the spotlight, branded as all but traitors by both the right and the left.
Earlier this year, both Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan charged that President Bush's campaign team was riddled with foreign lobbyists wielding undue influence. Later, in a debate, Mr. Perot vowed to put "all these [lobbyists] with thousand-dollar suits and alligator shoes . . . in the Smithsonian, because we're going to get rid of them, and the Congress will be listening to the people."
Often lost amid the political rhetoric is the question of what exactly do these people do? And why are companies like Mitsubishi and countries like Jordan paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it?
A classic case of inside influence at work was the battle between Japanese auto manufacturers and the U.S. Customs Service in 1988 and 1989, as Pat Choate, a Washington economist, charges in his book "Agents of Influence."
After a lengthy investigation, the Customs Service ruled that imported jeeps should be classified as light trucks, not passenger cars, since they were made in truck factories using truck engines. The ruling, though, increased U.S. tariffs on the jeeps tenfold, from 2.5 percent to 25 percent.
With billions of dollars at stake, Japanese auto manufacturers moved. They dispatched 44 lobbyists, according to Mr. Choate, meeting with Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, White House officials and influential members of Congress.
After almost two months of arm-twisting and diplomatic pressure, the Treasury overturned the decision. According to Mr. Choate, it is the first and only time the Treasury Department reversed a Customs Service ruling.
"They spent $3 million on lobbying and saved $1.5 billion -- money that should have gone to the U.S. Treasury," said Mr. Choate. "They bought a decision."
"But the lobbying not only hurt U.S. taxpayers. It cost U.S. automakers billions and caused thousands of autoworkers to lose their jobs."
