The current Attorney General, Eric Holder, left DC’s Covington and Burling to return to the Justice Department, where he held a senior post during the Clinton years. Holder’s mission is to supposedly “rein in the free market excesses of the last eight years.” Bush’s people are done with their own crackdown and are now returning to DC’s big law firms to warn their client business firms about the coming crackdown by Holder’s prosecutors. This is sorta like the GOP legislators who are now trying to lodge complaints about Obama’s spending. Despite the rhetoric, both sides aggrandize federal power and then enrich themselves (pdf) while advising businesspeople on how to comply with myriad regulations from the alphabet agencies.

For related Cato work, go here and here.