I have a few friends that are lobbyists. Most of their job isn't to convince anyone anything, it's to sell ideas. For example, I met the lobbyist that convinced politicians to sign the law that made smoking illegal in PA restaurants.

She had an interesting pitch, she went to a cigar bar with a few of the bigger names and then a restaurant, when they finished their meal, she walked outside and lit a cig in the dead of winter. They could've smoked after the meal in this restaurant, keeping most of her ideas and such to herself up until this point, she told them "Listen, I know it's the dead of winter and I can smoke in there, but there are children. If we can walk outside to smoke, for their benefit, so can everyone."

Mind you, it's not necessarily that simple, BUT most of their job isn't to whisper ideas and push money, no bribing or such, they treat them to a dinner on the company card, which there are laws restricting how you can do so, making it a legal method and then sell them the idea. Similar to the way a lot of places attempt to sell to captive audiences.

With that in mind, I think blame falls on the politicians for failing to read or understand the laws they've bought into as opposed to the lobbyists.