by David Furritus

Created on: November 21, 2009

Normally, the answer to this question would simply be 'yes' - but with a few stipulations involved:

Give up their salary.

Anyone that has ever served in The House or The Senate gets an annual salary for the rest of his or her lives. That's right: serve two years in The House or six in The Senate and not even get re-elected and you get a paycheck forever. If you want to be a lobbyist, you should have to give it up or else there would be a serious conflict of interest.

Remove any and all party affiliations.

Sure, most lobbyists are in it for some group that can usually be seen as having ties to a party (NRA with Republicans, PETA with Democrats, etc). That's fine. But, if you're someone that used to be a Republican and you're lobbying for Planned Parenthood, one might see something fishy in what you're doing. If you're going to be going before Congress, you're going to want to appeal to BOTH parties - not just the one that you used to pay lip-service to.

Do it for free.

A lot of "hired guns" that are brought into push certain bills, often couldn't care less about whatever they're talking about. They are usually doing it for a fat wad of cash. Someone that used to make money from taxpayers' dollars (and voting their selves raises!) knows the power of the almighty dollar and would love to keep making more. If someone is doing the job gratis, it would probably be someone that's more passionate about it.

Never return to politics

A nice way to get your old job back would be to hang out in your old stomping grounds being as loud as you were when you were still the "distinguished lady" or "distinguished gentleman" from your particular state. It's like an actor that's fallen on hard times hanging out on the sets of big budget movies hoping to get the lead role handed to them.

Simply put, allowing former Congressmen and women to return to Washington to continue their particular agendas can be extremely dangerous. They had their moment in the sun, had their impact, and were told that they were no longer needed. It's time that they just kick back at home, enjoy their lifetime salary, do the chat shows on the 24 hour news networks, and keep out of real politics.

Learn more about this author, David Furritus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.