Influence Peddling

This clip from a Politico article titled Lobbyists on pace for record year is a bit disconcerting:

Washington’s influence industry is on track to shatter last year’s record $3.3 billion spent to lobby Congress and the rest of the federal government — and that’s with a down economy and about 1,500 fewer registered lobbyists in town, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Given that information the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to roll back campaign-finance reform is doubly troubling. According to this wiki entry:

Influence peddling is the illegal practice of using one's influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favors or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment.

I wonder if anyone really questions whether influence peddling exists in our nation's capital.. or possibly it is just the cynical few (like yours truly) who see government as a breeding ground for the marketing and peddling of influence. I wonder if those "conservative" justices on the high court have a clue about this sort of influence in DC? If so why would they overturn legislation that limited this sort of influence?

I wish that I could be naive on this but I just cannot.