There may be no more incisive cultural portrait of today's Republican-controlled Washington than Wednesday's story in The Hill newspaper about Time Warner's hiring of a new D.C. Lobbyist. 

According to the piece, "disquiet on the Hill" is the upshot of Time Warner's choice of Carol Melton to serve as the entertainment behemoth's top lobbyist.  It appears that Melton, who previously served for a decade in Time Warner's legislative affairs shop and for eight years as Viacom's top legislative operative, is of insufficient GOP provenance to satsify unnamed "Republican leadership aides" who track such things as part of the infamous K Street Project. 

The story explains:

Time Warner’s decision to hire Carol Melton as its top lobbyist has garnered “quiet attention” from House Republican aides who have raised questions about her political affiliation.

“The entertainment industry continues to prove they just don’t get it,” a top House Republican aide remarked.

The backstory here, of course, is that the D.C.'s political climate is such that nowadays it is expected that big business will bestow its cush government relations gigs only upon alumni of Republican Capitol leadership offices or the broad network of conservative think tanks and demagoguery outfits.  Judging by the comments from the GOP aide, it appears that practice has become so common, so ingrained, that it is too much trouble for GOP operatives to even bother with twisting arms anymore.  They simply expect industry to fall quietly into line. 

Of course, when we heard the first public noises about the K Street Project and the involvement of elected officials in the scheme, the coverage angle was about whether it was appropriate for members of Congress with control over the levers of legislative power to use that clout in efforts to force the hand of regulated industries in making certain hiring decisions.  The tenor of this article, however, makes clear that such practices aren't only no longer questioned, but are so institutionalized that the press only notices on the few occasions when the subtle extortative undertones of the ruling Republican Party are ignored. 

It's taken just a few years of Republican rule to create a perverse circumstance in which the hiring of lobbyists has gone from a merit-based proposition to merely another opportunity for ring-kissing, partisan hackery, and expressions of loyalty at gunpoint.   

This could be made no more clear than it is in the story's second statement from the unnamed GOP aide, who thoughtfully provides:

 â€œFirst they hire Dan Glickman at MPAA, and now they hire a person with a proven record of supporting Democrats over Republicans."

Implicit in his statement is the idea that the hiring of a lobbyist --which most of us probably imagine has something to with his or her skill as an advocate or knowledge of substance and process-- is in the eyes of modern Republicans submerged completely within the realm of political paybacks and patronage.  Today's Republican Washington, it seems, is a place where lobbyist jobs are simply the cost of doing business --and where any firm who dares to utilize a concept so quaint as merit is at risk of being viewed by the GOP as a group that "just doesn't get it."

How terribly sad.