Who did Democratic Congressional leaders sent the text of the stimulus to before fellow elected members of Congress? K Street lobbyists, according to even Democratic staffers. The most open, honest, and ethical Congress evuh!

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?’”

Why would Democrats send the legislation to be reviewed by lobbyists before even the people who need to vote on it? Probably because the entire purpose of this bill is to pay back Democratic interests. We wouldn’t want a lobbyist who doesn’t get his or her fair share of the pork, would we?

It’s not like this news should come as a shock to anyone. Barack Obama promised that lobbyists wouldn’t be welcome in his White House and then appointed over a dozen of them. It’s just business as usual.