Calling her a "K Street whore" was an error in judgment and, as he said in an apology, "inappropriate."
"I offer my sincere apology to Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women.
"This characterization of Ms. Robertson, made during a radio interview last month in the context of the debate over whether the Federal Reserve should be independently audited, was inappropriate, and I apologize."
The services performed by K Street lobbyists are in no way comparable to whoring. Whores provide services the recipients ask for and expect to be paid in exchange. The only reason the term used to describe them is derogatory is because the recipients of their services prefer their lust to be gratified for free and resent having to pay--they not only want their sex to be risk-free, without personal consequence, they want their pride in themselves to be satisfied as well.
The services the people on K Street provide on behalf of their clients, who aren't in the least reluctant to pay, is lies--lies that the recipients of the disinformation definitely don't need. While the clients of whores may indulge in a bit of self-deception, the K Street contingent spreads deception around like manure, enabling their clients to grow fat on mostly ill-gotten gains--i.e. subsidies from the public treasury.
Perhaps the biggest truth that the myth of American free enterprise hides is that commerce and industry have always relied on being subsidized. Perhaps that's because we've yet to figure out how to prevent monopolists from trying to gobble their competitors up. And perhaps that's because we have yet to figure out that, not only is bigger not better, but monopolies inevitably self-destruct. Monopolies are like the dinosaurs--too big to survive.