Gary Andres offers this commentary in the Washington Times. It begins: “Congress may be in for some surprises if it tries to alter lobbying and ethics rules without considering how these changes affect campaign finance and elections. Bifurcating these issues may make sense as a tactic to ease the passage of legislation, but history suggests separating rules related to “petitioning the government” from elections is easier said than done. That’s because lobbying, ethics, and campaign reform share two real-world common denominators — unintended consequences and inter-relatedness. Like the water balloon of American politics, squeezing First Amendment practices doesn’t make them disappear; they just pop out somewhere else.”