Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt's election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt's
challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona — "We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power" — went unheeded.
The columnist, Thomas B. Edsall of Columbia University, criticized Blunt's work as head of the GOP's notorious K Street Project:
In 2003, after DeLay moved up to majority leader and turned the so-called K Street Project over to him, Blunt promptly converted a legion of Republican lobbyists into an arm of the House whip operation. Lobbyists have always been close to Congress, under rule by either party. What DeLay and Blunt did was to sacralize this
relationship. In doing so, they transferred a chunk of power from Capitol Hill to business interests. This unholy alliance was a crucial factor in transforming the G.O.P. into an army of spenders whose earmarks, appropriations and tax cuts
rivaled the government largess of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.
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