WASHINGTON – You might expect the fall of Jack Abramoff to cause Washington’s lobbying industry to clean up its act. Not at all. Instead, lobbyists are going about their business full bore.

Many Washington lobbyists, while denouncing Abramoff publicly, are studying his techniques. To them, his failure is not one of ethics but of overreaching. They do not fault him for influencing members of Congress and bilking his clients, but for getting into ancillary businesses, like restaurants and gambling boats.

To his compatriots on K Street, Abramoff is an exemplar of how things work in Washington: he had lots of money to distribute and he had access to Capitol Hill and the White House.

But to the rest of the nation, Abramoff is confirmation that dark and sinister things are done in the name of the people by their elected representatives. Governance was not only found to be for sale, but sold – and often for very little. Many members of Congress emerge as little people entranced by the seemingly big people in the lobbying game. Is sitting in a sky box during a sports event or playing golf at St. Andrews really such a big deal?

Part of the fault is on us, the electorate. We insist on scrubbing and scrutinizing our politicians to such an extent that we fill Congress with vanilla people, robbed of passion, style and personality.

In doing so, we guarantee that people on the outside who have these qualities are alluring to our representatives.

To be a successful lobbyist, you need access to clients’ money to finance candidates, but you also need personal magnetism, ferocious social skills and that indefinable ability to convince companions that they would rather be in your orbit than anywhere else.

I have known a lot of lobbyists who pushed for various special interests, from great corporations to, yes, Indian tribes. Their approaches and styles all differed, but they had a common trait: They were great company.

One conducted his lobbying from a permanent table at a Washington restaurant. Another fed members of Congress comforting gossip, contrived friendship, and very pleasant weekend stays on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Some do it with tennis, some with theater tickets and some with dinner parties. But all have to have a certain force of personality – an alpha demeanor that is acknowledged by their targets.

Of course, political contributions are important. But so is the sense of well-being and value that effective lobbyists lavish on their targets. Speeches, birthdays, children’s graduations and triumphs in Congress are showered with praise, promoted to being events of huge significance.

Come to Washington and instant friends are ready to make life easier for you, to charm your spouse, to cultivate your children, and to give you the full intoxication of the K Street treatment.

Then they help you with money to get re-elected. So when the fix is put in, with a request for an earmark, support of a bill or special tax treatment, hell, it is hard to say no. Good lobbyists are devious courtiers, keen to please, anxious to befriend, and ready to ask for just a little reciprocation.

The lobbyists are a fourth branch of government, and they are not going away. In fact, there are so many lobbyists that there is now one-on-one coverage for every elected member of Congress and every member of their staffs.

Often young, often poorly paid, always ambitious, staffers are swept up by lobbyists, who use the technique of making them feel important, part of a great endeavor, and see that they too are not wanting for social fulfillment. No wonder so many lobbyists are former congressional staffers, ready to befriend, coax and cajole.

Talk of reform is everywhere in Congress. But with the exception of heroic figures, like Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold, the dirty little secret is that people in Washington like the system, enjoy the spoils, and find disbursing other peoples’ money – clients’ and taxpayers’ – painless.

If this upsets you, run for Congress or hire your own lobbyist.