You wouldn't like them when they're angry:

It was a small band of loyal lobbyists who stood by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain last August when his campaign went broke and his White House aspirations seemed doomed.

They raised money for him under impossible odds and kept him company in budget hotels during his darkest days.

Now they are under siege as McCain purges active lobbyists from his campaign team in a quest to wrest the reformist title from Democrat Barack Obama, his likely opponent in this fall’s general election.

The dramatic turnabout among these once-embattled allies may be long forgotten by Republicans — and the voters — come November. But for now, it seems a modern-day case study of Harry S. Truman’s famous truism: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

Five lobbyists have been shown the door of McCain’s Virginia campaign headquarters in the past week, including Tom Loeffler, who is largely credited with keeping the senator’s primary campaign financially afloat long enough to capture the Republican presidential nomination.

“If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?” asked one Republican lobbyist who counts a friend among the new McCain outcast class.

It's hard out there for a lobbyist.