But when those relationships involve favors by people in positions of power, ethical lines can quickly become blurred.
Some ethics experts say such questions are legitimately raised over the personal networking that may have linked the controversial Legacy Highway project in northern Utah to an Air Force Base in Alaska.
At the center of the saga is Jim Hansen, who made lots of lasting friendships during his 22 years as a Republican congressman from Utah.
So when Utah's congressional delegation sought to steamroll roadblocks preventing construction of the Legacy Highway, they asked Hansen to seek help from an old friend, Alaska Republican Don Young. It so happens that Young, as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, dominates transportation policymaking.
Young backed the deal, which would have wiped out legal and environmental obstacles stalling the Legacy Highway.
At the same time, Young was getting enthusiastic support from Hansen, a member of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, on a matter critical to his state - saving an Air Force base in Alaska and thousands of jobs that went with it.
The Air Force had recommended putting Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks into "warm" status, shrinking operations to a skeleton staff and moving its planes to other bases, costing the community 4,711 military and civilian jobs.
The best hope to save Eielson was convincing the BRAC Commission that the Pentagon had erred.
The Legacy Highway exemption was slipped into a transportation bill during closed-door negotiations last month, with Young's support. It was eventually forced out by Democratic opposition. But Thursday, Hansen and the BRAC Commission gave Eielson a partial reprieve.
Hansen, who was one of Eielson's leading cheerleaders throughout the BRAC process, offered the amendment to spare the Alaska base, keeping its F-16s in place, but moving its fleet of A-10s - although at first he mistakenly offered an amendment to keep Eielson at full strength.
"One of the finest bases I've ever visited is Eielson," Hansen said Thursday. "They have so many things going for them I think it would be rather foolish for us to keep it in a warm status. . . . I think it's a fantastic base and one that many people would like to go to."
Hansen's support for Eielson has been consistent, and although Young and Hansen were in a position to deliver for each other, there is no indication either was unduly swayed by their friendship. Indeed, Hansen said in an interview that the fate of Eielson was never broached during his talks with Young on the Legacy provision.
"I've never mixed the two, but when you work on a dozen different things - as you do as a congressman, as you do when you're a commissioner - you can't put your head in the sand, but there was no quid pro quo," Hansen said.
Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said the relationship raises questions of access and perceptions of influence.
"It is the appearance of any kind of special favor or inside track that is very damaging to the public confidence in the outcome," she said. "With issues of this magnitude which are highly charged and have such huge impacts on the communities, you have to be extraordinarily cautious."
Hansen has long had an interest in the Legacy Highway, designed to alleviate traffic along the 14-mile route from North Salt Lake to Farmington. He advocated for it in Congress, and since retiring in 2003, he has been working to make Legacy a reality - first on a volunteer basis, and then in January under a $20,000, four-month consulting deal with the Davis County Council of Governments.
Shortly after the deal took effect, Hansen was recommended for BRAC by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. President Bush formally nominated him March 14, and directly appointed the commissioners April 4.
About that time, work was under way to attach the Legacy Highway provision in the transportation bill.
Hansen said he went to the delegation with the idea of putting "language in the transportation bill that would override the court's decision," and he "basically wrote the language" that was added to the bill and turned it over to the delegation.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the delegation suggested that Hansen call Young, and Rep. Rob Bishop said he also played on Young's friendship, suggesting to Young "that this would be something nice he could do for Jim."
Young's spokesman, Steve Hansen, said Young knew the Legacy project was in the bill, but the spokesman said he did not know what conversations Young had had with the former Utah congressman.
The Legacy Highway language eventually was stripped out of the transportation bill after the Sierra Club persuaded Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., to block it.
Michael Surrusco, director of ethics for the watchdog group Common Cause, said it is problematic for someone in a position as powerful as Hansen's to be seeking favors.
"It would be troubling if a commissioner in BRAC were actively lobbying members of Congress for a present or former client, because of their power to affect base closures that are important to those members," he said."These members are probably bending over backward not to close the bases in their state. [The commissioners] have huge leverage."
The ethics rules for BRAC commissioners encourage members to coordinate official communications with members of Congress with the BRAC chairman and prohibit lobbying of Congress in their official capacities, but do not restrict what members do in "off duty time."
"In this case . . . who was he when he walked into that office and what was the expectation of the people who met with him?" Nadler asked.
"It must be clear to the congressman that his former colleague is a commissioner, so you actually don't have to say too much. . . . Particularly at this point in Washington, everyone knows who the commissioners are and everyone knows what's at stake."
But Hansen said there are limits to how careful a commissioner can be.
"You can't put the guy in the bubble," he said. "We've still got to live."
