An Honorable Profession

Huffington Post:   Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg has been pounding Democratic Sen. Jon Tester over lobbyist fundraising in their tight Senate race, but Rehberg declared last year in a meeting with the influence peddlers that he probably would have chosen their profession over his own if he had been "smart."

And further, he declared they were not only honorable, but that he could not do his job without them.
Rehberg made those assertions speaking to the American League of Lobbyists in October at an event that was recorded. The recording was forwarded to The Huffington Post by the Tester campaign.
In the speech, Rehberg recalls how he nearly became a lobbyist.

"A lot of y’all’s type came to me and said, 'What are you nuts? You know, if we had the choice of either run for Congress or be a lobbyist, wouldn’t you like to try the Congress first?' And I fell for it," Rehberg said. "I ran for Congress. I probably, if I had been smart, I would’ve said nope, no, I think I’ll stay out of the political arena and go into lobbying.

"What I’m trying to suggest is I think lobbying is an honorable profession," he said.

See government by the people is bad.  The people who buy it are good.  That's your Republican party... Look, the way to influence democracy is to volunteer your time and your vote.  That's it.  While the Republicans on the Supreme Court may have said otherwise, anything else is illegal, immoral, and a danger to the republic.