by Fred Barnes

About the author: Fred Barnes is the executive editor of the conservative magazine Weekly Standard and a commentator on the public television show The McLaughlin Group.

As they left the floor of the House of Representatives last June, members were accosted in the cloakroom by an ex-con. He also happened to be a former colleague—Larry Smith, who represented Miami in Congress from 1983 to 1993.

Fresh from serving three months for income-tax evasion and filing a falsified Federal Election Commission report, Smith was back in his former haunt—as a registered lobbyist. He was buttonholing old associates on behalf of his new client, the Cuban American National Foundation. Later, Smith joined forces with one of Washington’s premier public-relations firms, the Kamber Group. Explained company chairman Vic Kamber: “He didn&rsquo...