What's the upshot of Obama's first six months in office? Many D.C. lobbyists feel like pariahs, according to National Journal Magazine, which quotes several lobbyists who tell of colleagues who are either avoiding registering as lobbyists or ending their lobbyist status, even if they stay engaged in advocacy.

"If the talk is accurate, ethics lawyers and some watchdog groups say, the result would be the exact opposite of the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act's intent, which was to increase the amount of information on who is working to influence public policy inside the Beltway," the magazine reports.

Doug Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council, tells the magazine that "the administration is using (the lobbying disclosure) statute as a way to sort out and isolate registered lobbyists from non-lobbyists. It's becoming punitive to fill out forms rather than good for you to fill out forms. That changes the whole meaning of the statute, which is to increase disclosure."

Shortly after taking office, Obama imposed strict rules banning from his administration most people who registered as lobbyists during the past two years. The executive branch also requires lobbyists to communicate on economic stimulus projects only in writing and to post such communications on the Internet.

"Part of what we haven't appreciated is that by all of our lobbyist-bashing, people now don't want to identify themselves as lobbyists," Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, told the magazine. "People used to register out of an abundance of caution, and now the opposite is happening. They aren't registering because they are embarrassed or worried about their job prospects. It's a matter of concern because the administration wants more disclosure, not less."

Norman Eisen, the president's special counsel for ethics and reform, said he doesn't believe "heavy-duty lobbyists are going to deregister and flout the law."

"Ours was never a program to say that all lobbying and lobbyists are bad," Eisen told the magazine. "We have closed the revolving door; we have focused attention on how lobbying undermines the public interest; and now, for the first time ever, with the stimulus package rules we have regulated registered and unregistered lobbyists.