TheAdvocateOne year ago, former U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, stepped out of Congress to become the chief lobbyist for the trillion-dollar hedge fund industry and walked right into the economic tornado swirling through the nation.

“I don’t have too many irons in my fire,” Baker recently said. “I have too many fires in my irons.”

Now head of the Managed Funds Association in Washington, Baker’s one-year ban on lobbying former colleagues in Congress ended Monday.

He now expects to be going to Capitol Hill frequently to appear as a witness at congressional hearings. Neither Baker nor the association disclosed his salary, although some media report it to exceed $1 million a year.

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CNNMoney.com – When the headhunter first called Richard Baker in late 2007 and asked him if he was interested in becoming president and CEO of the Managed Funds Association – the hedge fund trade group – Baker thought it was a joke. "My reaction was, ‘You want me to do what?’"

An 11-term Republican Congressman from Louisiana, Baker was about as likely a candidate to run the MFA as Bill Gates is to run an Apple in his home office.

Over the years, Baker had emerged as a fierce and independent critic of the financial services industry – pushing for tougher regulation of hedge funds after the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management.

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