After running as a so-called “reformer” in the race to replace Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, Ohio Rep. John Boehner admitted in his first major TV interview, “I’ve got a very open relationship with lobbyists in town.”

Since assuming the House’s number two leadership slot, his coziness with K Street has only intensified. According to a front page <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/15/washington/15boehner.html?hp&ex=1153022400&en=b4c62

bcf0c6d5bf9&ei=5094&partner=homepage”>New York Times story today, Boehner’s raising $10,000 a day in campaign contributions from lobbyists and corporations, at a rate that would make even Tom DeLay blush.

“A review of Mr. Boehner’s recent contributors finds a ‘who’s who’ of Washington special interests, many with issues before Congress,” the Times reported. “Mr. Boehner’s biggest donors include the political action committees of lobbying firms, drug and cigarette makers, banks, health insurers, oil companies and military contractors.”

Even before joining the House leadership, Boehner placed at least 24 former staffers at plum lobbyist jobs. Since his election last February, Boehner’s campaign committees hired two top lobbyists employed by the finance and insurance industries.

And since 2000, Boehner’s taken more than twice as many corporate-funded trips as DeLay. When Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert proposed a ban on such travel in January, Boehner quickly nixed the idea–presumably so he could continue attending functions like a convention of commodities traders at a golf resort in Florida. In between hitting the links, Boehner assured the group that Congress would not pass a tax on futures transactions they opposed.

Little wonder why lobbying reform is dead.