It’s a shame that Democratic lobbyists are working overtime (and getting rich) opposing him.
We’ve been doing an analysis of where the lobbying money is going in the first quarter of 2009, which lays an interesting map of how power is being parlayed in the new Democratic era:
Elmendorf Strategies: Everyone’s favorite lobbyist Steve Elmendorf was a senior advisor to Dick Gephardt for 12 years, and was deputy campaign manager for Kerry in 04. He’s been signing clients left and right lately, including Ameren, described by Brad Johnson as "coal plutocrats" who are "spending millions on Washington D.C. so that they can continue to make billions destroying the American economy and the planet." He’s also got Rush Limbaugh’s employer, Clear Channel, referred to by Media Matters as "conservative-friendly media behemoth with a soft spot for right-wing radio" and " the poster child for everything that’s wrong with runaway media consolidation.
But wait, there’s more. He’s recently signed TARP recipients Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and hopefuls Hartford Insurance. But the big score is the Active Financing Working Group, SIFMA and Microsoft, who will be lobbying furiously to stop President Obama’s recently announced plan to close offshore tax loopholes. Hedge fund managers are heavily impacted by these proposed changes, as are companies like Microsoft that have profited both by outsourcing jobs and the ability to evade taxes.
Elmendorf employees have payed out over $72,000 in political contributions to Democrats since the November election. Draw your own conclusions.
Glover Park Group: Lobbying against credit card reform for the American Bankers’ Association, the organization called out by Dick Durbin in his rant about how banks "own the place." They also lobbied for Whole Foods on labor issues — you’ll recall Lanny Davis leading the trojan horse to kill Employee Free Choice on their behalf. They also represent Planned Parenthood.
- Joel Johnson is a former Senior Advisor for Policy and Communications in the Clinton White House. He’s also former Staff Director for Senate Democratic Leadership, and served as Tom Daschle’s chief legislative and communications advisor.
- Susan Brophy previously held positions as administrative assistant to Byron Dorgan, policy director of the DNC, and director of congressional relations for the Clinton-Gore transition office.
- Joyce Brayboy worked for 12 years as Chief of Staff to Mel Watt. Appointed by Howard Dean to serve as a Super Delegate for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
LHD & Associates: Speaking of Daschle — Linda Hall Daschle picked up quite a few clients after the first of the year when she hung out her own shingle, signing contracts with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, the American Association of Airport Executives, American Airlines, Norfolk Southern, the USTA and L-3. Daschle is a former FAA administrator whose lobbying career has been marked with conflicts with her husband’s former position as Majority Leader.
President Obama’s effort to close loopholes for foreign tax havens will be seriously affecting her clients. According to the GAO report cited by the administration, Boeing had 135 foreign subsidies and $23 billion in government contracts in 2007. L-3 has 90 foreign subsidies and $6.6 billion in government contracts.
The irony is that money is flowing into Democratic lobbying shops at unprecedented rates expressly because Obama is in the White House.
Coming up next: The Podesta Group, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti and D+P Creative Strategies — Democrats who take Walmart’s money to kill EFCA.
Related posts:
- The Democratic Leadership Thinks We’re Stupid
- Pulling Back the Curtain on Tom Daschle, WH & Industry Front Man
- Is Obama the New, Democratic Version of President Herbert Hoover?
- Baucus, Reid, Obama Promote Backroom “Bipartisanship” over Democratic Debate
- Tom Daschle, “Bipartisan” Healthcare Industry Shill
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Greed has no limits.
Washington & New York. Hopelessly Corrupt.
The Glover Park Group is an insidious group of ex-Clintonites who brought us Howard Wolfson and who have joined forces with like minds from across the aisle to make a lot of dough…all under the guise of doing good by producing public service type ads for cover.
The more America gets to know the likes and dealings of the Glover Park Groups the more outrage there will be with this twisted insider cash machinery.
This group produces ads for companies like Verizon with the theme of employee pride with the intention of beating back union efforts to organize.
It was very hard to watch Hillary play pro union with Howard Wolfson at her side.
I love that you are highlighting this issue, as well as the people involved. Thanks for all you do!
But apparently transparency does.
Thanks Jane.
Now if we can make as effective use of this information as the lobbyists make of their access.
Transparency adds cost to their efforts.
Jane,
Expose the whores! Let the world know them, their faces and all. Total selfish sell outs.
So,
how many of you are marking this up and contacting both whitehouse.gov and your senators and representatives in order to condemn this lobbying, and empowering your like-minded friends to do the same?
See mack at 4 – thank you!
I just don’t like Jane’s hard work going in vain…
I detest lobbyists. I wonder who the first one was who made a buck selling utter nonsense and giving piles of money to politician who didn’t need it. The lobbyists have done great harm to our country and they go merrily on their way making a gazillion dollars and ruining us.
E-mailed the White House about 5 minutes ago. I do that several times a week. Probably doesn’t get read but I feel better anyway.
It’s biz and about making money – I make mine and you make yours and screw the people. Lobby is hard work ain’t it?
Are fees paid to the lobbying firms tax deductible?
Go get ‘em, Jane!
Isn’t Joe Liarman’s wife a lobbyist?
I love that name, “Glover Park Group”. It’s less conspicuous but just as name-dropping as “Georgetown Cocktail Party Group” would be.
Love ya Jane eventhough you & I don’t always see eye to eye.Thanks for getting this info on these Dem lobbyist out.Just keep up the good work.
Seconded.
Great scoops!
Out of my three elected representatives at the federal level, two are democrats and only one a Republican.
And yet they seem unanimous in opposing “real” health care reform, credit card reform or anything that’s decent and good.
This issue is the crux of the biscuit. We won’t get any real reform in any area, until we clean up the outright bribery in our political system.
First, there is nothing surprising about Democrats and Democratic lobbyists staking out positions that are fundamentally at odds with their base. They have been doing it for years.
The real question I suppose are which corporations are the big winners and losers in this process. I would have to say with the all the trillions that have gone to them it is the banks. The auto companies on the other hand are largely being put through bankruptcy.
For other industries, the story is mixed (and in many cases remains unresolved). If Gates goes through with his cuts in big gold-plated Pentagon procurement projects, some defense contractors could be hurt. But the process is far from over and it is not clear that they won’t pick up business in other contracts or otherwise be paid off.
In principle, hedge funds could make out like bandits under the PPIP but they are leery to join up to it because, I suspect, they are afraid that would provide a governmental hook into them which would not so much crimp their executive compensation but expose their underlying insolvency. And yes, like most of financial players, they have offshore havens that they don’t want exposed either.
The point I would like to make, however, is about this:
I think we have to be very careful about the difference between being on record for something and actually using the power and prestige of the Presidency to push it through Congress. Obama can be quite aggressive when he wants to be. The question is: Are tax havens something he really wants to do something about or does he simply want to raise the issue to establish some populist cred and then sit back and watch it die in Congress?
Prob get some creds and do nothing.
I think he’s controlled by forces bigger than he is. He may have his heart in the right place, but can’t get up the courage to get whacked for trying.
He may be trying to outfox the bastards with some long strategy.
He may have been a BS artist from the get go and realized it was timely to talk to the people and then ignore them and listen to the masters.
Nothing will happen from the top down. It never does. It’s up to the people to force the change.
I suppose they are waiting for a charismatic leader to appear.
This is great! Raise the exposure level. Excellent!
Ya know, with so many lovely people in DC, it’s amazing that anything ever goes wrong there. It’s sad that there doesn’t seem to be a party for the 99% of us who aren’t filthy rich.
This is where Jane shines. The over-arching tale is a rotting underbelly of corruption turning America into an anemic shadow of her potential. We see this, hell, everybody sees this. Jane knows that all tales have people in them that drive the tale or are themselves driven by it. She gives them names and titles changing theory and conjecture into facts and showing clearly where the legalized bribes are going that short-circuit the political process.
I hope you are planning on writing something about ex-Louisiana senator John Breaux. He’s got a lobby shop with sleazeball ex-Mississippi senator Trent Lott . They call it the “Breaux-Lott Leadership Group.” Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
Maybe that should be “Br’er Lott Lia
dership Group”Wow, looks like I messed up the link to the 10-Q. Sorry, here is the correct link, I hope.
To answer, yes, there are administrative expenses. The “non-interest expense” in the credit card segment for the first quarter was $2.075bn, compared with $2.199bn for the 1st quarter 2008. See page 95.
Or replace the lobbyists corrupting money with our own pure holy campaign contributions (meaning from the general public).
AFAIK he’s pushing for everything he thinks will have a good result, knowing he won’t be able to get them all. There is also the practical problem of not having campaigned or lobbied for a lot of these things over time. Some are new and don’t have a big constituency in Congress.