Data show 2009 was a record year for lobbying on energy issues. 1747 clients (firms and groups) hired lobbyists to work in the area of energy and nuclear power. This is a stunning 93 percent increase from 2006. This increase may be stunning, but it isn’t surprising. With literally trillions of dollars put into play by various cap-and-trade bills over the last three years, it would have been surprising if lobbying hadn’t grown by leaps and bounds. Though initially offered as legislation to fight global-warming, the justifications for cap and …
The AP reports, you decide: WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing. In office two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, gingerly shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority. That’s happened on the Iraq troop withdrawal timeline, on lobbyists in his administration and on money for lawmakers’ pet projects.
As a candidate, President Barack Obama promised to “Shine the Light on Washington Lobbying” by creating “a centralized Internet database of lobbying reports, ethics records, and campaign finance filings in a searchable, sortable and downloadable format.” That database will be completed any day, we’re sure, but President Obama has definitely already “shined a light” on how Washington really works. Consider Obama’s failed Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Tom Daschle. As the New York Times reported this February, in the four years since he left the Senate, Daschle managed to …
The Washington Post reports: Speaking of doctors, former Democratic National Committee chairman and six-term Vermont governor Howard Dean is the latest star to join the government affairs practice of law and lobbying mega-firm McKenna Long & Aldridge. He’s not only a physician but also a “thought leader” on politics and policy, a man whose “network of relationships will benefit clients who are working in states and municipalities across the U.S.,” the firm announced last week. Ah, yes, we knew that 50-state strategy made sense. … Dean joins an impressive lobbying …
In what some observers are calling a reshaping of Wall Street, two of the world’s largest investment banks, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, are set to disappear. Lehman has announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America. For all the complicated financial instruments and relationships involved in the current financial turmoil, the underlying cause is still relatively simple: the bursting of the housing bubble. One market strategist told The New York Times: “We are in the grip of a vicious …
We’ve explained on numerous occasions why lobbyists love it when liberals are in power. To put it succinctly: the more economic planning that goes through Washington, the more smart corporations must pay lobbyists to make sure Washington does not plan them out of existence. Today Jeffrey Birnbaum reports in his ‘On K Street‘ column, that K Street is in the midst of a spending spree in anticipation of liberal control of Washington next year: Attacks from the presidential wannabes and the likelihood that Congress will become even more Democratic — …
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) first act when taking over control of the House was to pass a bill that the Washington Post called “the broadest ethics and lobbying revision since the Watergate era.” Since then, it has become well documented that the government sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that are at the core of the housing crisis, have built an expansive lobbying empire to thwart regulation and oversight. So one would hope that since liberals in Congress are rushing to bail Fannie and Freddie out of their financial …
Cheerleading for the Lieberman-Warner carbon cap plan being debated in the Senate as we type, the Washington Post editorializes: “The foundation of the legislation is a cap-and-trade system that would put a price on carbon by having a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions permitted for each year between 2012 and 2050. Emission permits could be bought and sold; this would promote increasing energy efficiency with a minimum of government prescription.” If the Washington Post thinks carbon caps are “a minimum of government prescription,” they’ve been in Washington too long. …
There are few better illustrations of the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives than their markedly different approaches on how to curb special interest power in Washington. Liberals try to control the economy through ever more invasive regulations and when the regulated industries push back, liberals pass ever more stringent ethics and campaign finance laws. Conservatives on the other hand simply try and limit Washington’s intervention in the market and it’s ability to dole out special favors. As Heritage Foundation Government Relations VP Mike Franc writes on NRO: The less …
The Washington Post Magazine yesterday published a must-read look at how Washington, D.C., really works. Far too often the Post and other media focus far too much attention on how election campaigns are financed and not nearly of attention on how lobbying campaigns are actually run. This type of coverage leads to meaningless regulation that assaults the First Amendment and goes by silly names like “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.” Jeffrey Birnbaum’s Feb. 17 piece tells the story of how the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, …
