Another poetic gem from TMV’s favorite poet, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet:
In 1963 The Orlons were singing about a place in Philadelphia where all the hippies meet “South Street.” Here’s a song about “K Street” in Washington, where today’s lobbying elite meet and greet Congressmen seeking a treat.
K Street
Where do lobbyists all greet (K Street, K Street)
Congressmen who want a treat (K Street, K Street)
Fancy trips and meals galore
A legislator’s candy store
Come…a…round
The goodies here abound.Watch them, on K Street, oh yeah, these folks are slick
Watch them, on K Street, do their buying favors trick
Outright…brib’ry
That’s so passe
Campaign…giving
That’s the legal K Street waydum, dedum, dum, dedum
Legislators have all sworn (K Street, K Street)
This time there’ll be real reform (K Street, K Street)
They¹ll emote, they¹ll huff and puff
Claim they’re done with bad old stuff
Write new law
They’ll proceed to just ignoreWatch them, on K Street, oh yeah, big money talks
Watch them, on K Street, from these bucks nobody walks
In this…country
The game today
To get…a hearing
You gotta pay to playdum dedum, dum dedum
dumb dumb dumb dumb
dumb dedumb.Copyright 2006 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.