…of lobbying connections. TPM Muckraker reports on the spouses of two central figures in the [sw: Jerry Lewis] earmarking scandal. Both of them are lobbyists and they both represent companies that do business with Lewis.

Shortly after Lewis rose to be the chairman of that subcommitee, Letitia White’s husband, up until that point a tobacco industry lobbyist, made a curious professional decision: he began lobbying on defense spending issues. … But in 2000, one year after Jerry Lewis became chair of the defense appropriations subcommittee (taking Letitia White along with him), Richard White registered to lobby for “defense spending items” on behalf of a lobbyist. It’s not clear which of the lobbyist’s clients White was working for.

That arrangement continued for the next few years, White receiving between $20,000 and $45,000 annually from the firm, called R.C. Whitner & Associates. From 2000 to 2005, White received $205,000 from the group.

But in 2003, something changed. Richard White began picking up defense contractors as clients – without going through Whitner. That was the same year that his wife Letitia left Lewis to join Lowery’s lobbying firm.

And of course he went on to make even more money. Now for the other spouse:

But Richard isn’t the only spouse getting cut in because of ties to the world of Jerry Lewis. Alexandra Shockey, the wife of another Lewis aide-turned-lobbyist, Jeffrey Shockey, is also doing well for herself as a lobbyist with extraordinary connections to Lewis.

After several years as a Lewis aide, Alexandra dropped out of her political career to raise a family, returning only when her husband gave up his million-dollar-plus lobbying gig to work for Lewis again. She scooped up his clients — and a lobbyist’s income — to push their interests in front of Lewis, while her husband, now a senior aide on Lewis’ committee, helps her old boss dole out $900 billion in federal money every year.

Let’s not forget that when Jeffrey Shockey went back to work for Lewis he was given a $600,000 severance package.