BY MATTHEW COOPER
IT WAS an early March morning on Washington, D.C.’s K Street—the boulevard synonymous with political influence the way New York’s Fifth Avenue is with high-end shopping or the Champs-Élysées with love. Lobbyists and lawyers, bureaucrats and bankers gathered for a conference on America’s infrastructure nightmare. And many of them were in a rut so deep not even the nifty model of sleek subway cars next to the coffee and croissants could lighten their mood.