Aren't former public servants supposed to live like kings?

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Brief article

Cashing in has become such an accepted feature of life in Washington that Mark Leibovich can write in his new book, This Town, that "[s]cores of [Obama] administration officials had by 2010 left the administration for K Street jobs, without anyone so much as pointing out that they were defying a central tenet of the Obama political enterprise." Even Ruth Marcus, the "Ms. Common Sense" of the Washington press corps, recently wrote a column defending the revolving door. I concede that Ruth is right that learning where the bodies are buried in the private sector can help you find them as a public servant. Unfortunately, too often the friendships you have formed...