In the post-Jack Abramoff era, lobbyists often refer to themselves at family reunions as public policy consultants.

And who can blame them?

Consider the case of the new Democratic Freshmen PAC, an organization formed to raise money for the re-election campaigns of the 42 newly elected Democrats in Congress including Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton.

The Majority Accountability Project, a web site run by two veteran Hill Republican staffers, breaks the news a few weeks ago that the PAC had hired lobbyist and lawyer Bill Oldaker to serve as its custodian.

The Washington Times picks up on the story and the helpful folks at the National Republican Campaign Committee make sure that reporters in McNerney’s district get the news.

“Either Jerry McNerney is ignorant of what’s going on with a PAC that his campaign stands to financially benefit from or he is willingly looking the other way when he should be scrutinizing the operations of the PAC,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.

Oldaker has represented oil, tobacco and pharmaceutical companies. And he was the subject of a harsh study by the Center for Public Integrity, which reported that Oldaker was the treasurer of 23 PACs, some of which later fired him ncluding those headed by Democratic U.S. senators Harry Reid of Nevada and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Local reporters including myself and Hank Shaw at the Stockton Record start asking McNerney questions about Oldaker and the PAC, and it’s pretty clear that the neophyte congressman — who has never held public office prior to his 2006 win — knows little or nothing about Oldaker or the murky underworld of lobbyists .

Nonetheless, McNerney subsequently writes a letter to PAC director Jim Smith and calls for Oldaker’s removal as custodian. (What’s a custodian? It’s the person who files the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and agrees to keep the PAC records.)

“I believe that lobbyists should not be attached to political committees,” McNerney wrote.

That’s nice. But there’s a small problem: The man that McNerney wrote the letter asking for the removal of the lobbyist, PAC director and treasurer Jim Smith, is himself a lobbyist.

Smith is a lobbyist for the American Continental Group in Washington, D.C., and his clients include the American Health Care Association, Siemens Corp., Air Products and Chemicals Inc. and pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-Laroche Inc.

Smith says he formed the PAC to “raise money for the (freshmen Democrats’) re-election campaigns. We don’t have an agenda. We don’t care how they vote. We want to support the Democratic Party and shore up the most vulnerable candidates.”

McNerney spokesman Andy Stone says Oldaker’s record and his removal as treasurer from PACs prompted the congressman’s request for the lobbyist’s termination. Smith’s status was never an issue.

Regardless of the PAC’s origins, the situation presents a dilemma for McNerney: Will every PAC contribution present a PR liability?

He ran for office, in large part, on a pledge that he would help clean up Washington. He roundly criticized his opponent, Republican Richard Pombo, for his big-money ties to PACs.

There no question that big money influence has corrupted Washington politics and watchdogs rightfully demand reforms.

But McNerney is running for re-election here and now, and it would be damned difficult to find a major PAC of any political stripe without an association with lobbyists in one form or another. Thousands of companies, local governments, nonprofits, trade groups, unions, environmental organizations have lobbyists and many of them have affiliated PACs.

As a campaign strategy, the Republicans would love nothing more than to force McNerney into a position where he either rejects PAC money and cripples his campaign or stands accused of hypocrisy.

Welcome to politics, Mr. McNerney.

Note: I updated this entry just after 1 p.m. to include additional information in italics provided by McNerney’s office and my further analysis.