K Street to Get a TM?

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While "most other Republicans" are avoiding the phrase K Street Project, following lobbyist Jack Abramoff's January agreement to plead guilty to corruption charges, Grover Norquist is seeking to trademark it. Norquist's organization, Americans for Tax Reform, runs the project as what he describes as "an innocuous list of job openings for Washington lobbyists and a database of lobbyists' political ties and federal campaign contributions. The lists are circulated among high-level conservatives, with critics calling the efforts an improper 'whitelisting' and 'blacklisting' of potential hires," reports The Hill. Norquist says the K Street Project, which he founded in 1989, has been wrongly described as "a nefarious practice of Republican lawmakers pressuring groups to hire right-leaning employees." Trademarking the phrase will allow conservatives to "jealously guard the real phrasing" and to "sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money," explained Norquist.