They’re apparently loving it, in fact.

K Street rebounds as many firms sign clients at fast pace

K Street’s economy appears to be on the rebound as a number of firms are reporting a sharp increase in new clients, a trend lobbyists attributed to the new president’s far-reaching agenda.

The combination of a deepening recession and the distraction of the 2008 campaign, which kept Congress out of session for much of the latter half of last year, were blamed for pushing lobbying revenues down in 2008.

Since Nov. 4, however, several top firms have signed new clients at a pace exceeding the growth periods that followed previous election cycles. Lobbyists credited the recently passed stimulus package and anticipated policy fights touching on the energy, healthcare and financial-services sectors for the uptick.

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Note: Ron Robinson noted this in the diaries.

Ah, change we can believe in:

We’re receiving E-mails from Capitol Hill staffers expressing frustration that they can’t get a copy of the stimulus bill agreed to last night at a price of $789 billion. What’s more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists.

E-mails one key Democratic staffer: “K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don’t. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it’s leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know—but we can’t do that because we haven’t seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, ‘Is this really happening?’”

Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs.

Well, it’s a good thing Lobbyists have no place in President Obama’s administration, nor are they getting first access — even before Congress — to the legislation he is demanding be passed without being read so he can sign another $800 billion in debt into law at his earliest convenience.

Except that they are — but pay no attention to the goings-on behind the curtain. Only listen to the mantra of Hope and Change, and for goodness’ sake don’t look too hard at anything or ask any questions.