Lobbyist Industry Still Booming In Albany

Times are tough now for many New Yorkers, but not for the lobbyists that work in and around the state capitol. Despite this recession-depression, the money keeps coming in for our politicians' campaign coffers. That goes double (to say the least) for those who hold the power.

From The Times-Union:

A New York Public Interest Research Groups study shows ticket prices paid to attend political fundraisers by those seeking to influence lawmakers so far hasn't taken a hit in the recession.

At the top of the list released Tuesday is new Senate Majority Malcolm Smith. The Queens Democrat charged up to $25,000 a ticket for a Jan. 26 fundraiser at a trendy downtown Albany restaurant.

At the bottom are minority party lawmakers like Assembly Republican leader and congressional candidate James Tedisco. He charged just $50 a ticket for a fundraiser Saturday at the same restaurant. "At least something is working in Albany," said Blair Horner, NYPIRG's legislative director. "These are fundraising sessions, not legislative sessions."

Whatever you want to call these parties, it is prime-time for lobbyists looking to do their clients' bidding with those that hold power in Albany. When someone is paying $25,000 for a ticket for access to Malcolm Smith, there has to be a nice return for the people that he listens to. Perhaps that's why it is so hard to get the support for the Fair Share Plan as well as real reform in the capitol.

What we need is to put an end to these fundraisers that only afford access to the wealthy few. Instead of $25,000, we need a more equalizing dollar amount, like $5 or $10. If Arizona, Maine and a few other states can have clean elections, then so should New York.

McCain's Campaign Manager Rick Davis Is Still A Lobbyist

Despite John McCain's pathetic attempt to lie about Rick Davis' lobbyist status, it wasn't too hard to pull the facts from the shallow ground that the GOP dug for them. At this point McCain and his cronies simply do not care about earning the public's trust. Instead they are on a direct strategy to lie and manipulate the public with ridiculous gimmicks that a blind man could see through. Since McCain challenged anyone on Rick Davis' status, the media did exactly that and guess what they found?

From Newsweek:

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Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, has remained the treasurer and a corporate director of his lobbying firm this year, despite repeated statements by campaign officials that he had ended his relationship with the firm in 2006, according to corporate records.

The McCain campaign this week criticized news stories disclosing that, since 2006, Davis's firm has been paid a $15,000-a-month consulting fee from Freddie Mac, the troubled mortgage giant recently put under federal conservatorship. The stories, published Tuesday by NEWSWEEK, The New York Times and Roll Call, reported that the consulting fees continued until last month even though, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement, neither Davis nor anybody else at his firm did any substantial work for the payments.

Stefanie Mullin, a spokesperson for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which has taken over Freddie Mac and its sister entity Fannie Mae, confirmed Wednesday that the Davis Manafort contract is being terminated. "All lobbying activity has stopped and political consulting contracts at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the process of being terminated," said Mullin. (Democratic strategist Paul Begala also was on the Freddie Mac payroll, according to sources familiar with the arrangement.)

The McCain campaign can skirt around the issue all the want, but the truth of the matter is that Davis still benefits from the arrangement. The facts of the case make this extremely relevant and especially revealing about the character of the people McCain employs and by that standard, the character of the candidate as well.

Rove Defends Lobbyists

Alan Colmes calls Karl Rove out on McCain's lobbyist connections...and Rove performs poorly:

Chris Wallace Makes A Fool Out Of Rick Davis

Every once in a while, Chris Wallace forgets he works at Fox News and acts like a journalist. Yesterday was one of those days, when Rick Davis came on to the show and Wallace smacked him upside the head with a few nuggets of truth and then catching him trying to spin his way out of an unescapable trap.

McCain Can Kiss Ohio Goodbye For This

One of the first states that are mentioned in terms of winning or losing this Presidential election is Ohio. It (disputably) gave Bush the cushion he needed to stay another four years in the White House. Ohio is a working-class state with many jobs that are being shipped out in order to pad profits of large corporations, corporations like DHL. Ohioans are concerned about their merger with Airborne-Express and the massive job loss that will ensue. McCain told a teary-eyed voter that he didn't know if he could stop the merger, but his campaign manager knows that he'll do everything in his power to make sure it goes through.

From The Washington Post:

In 2003, for instance, DHL Holdings (USA) and Airborne hired Davis to lobby the Senate to facilitate a merger. Hotly opposed by shipping giants FedEx and United Parcel Service, the merger encountered opposition from Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on the commerce committee. McCain took steps that helped Davis's clients. He thwarted Stevens's effort to insert language into legislation that would prohibit foreign-controlled companies such as DHL from holding certain military contracts.

Davis's firm earned $125,000 from Airborne in 2003 and $465,000 from DHL parent company Deutsche Post World Net (USA) from 2003 to 2005, records show.

A group called Preserve Luke Air Force Base hired Davis in 2004 and 2005 to help win approval of an Arizona land swap. Guy Inzalaco, who was part of a development group, formed Preserve Luke AFB to push for the exchange. He knew McCain's help would be critical.

"We were like, 'Okay, who's close to Senator McCain?' " Inzalaco recalled. "There were a number of people. We talked to them all. Rick [Davis] was one of them. We knew he was tight with the senator."

That is why Davis works "for free" as McCain's campaign manager. It may be free in terms of a check from the McCain campaign, but indirectly, Davis has made millions as a result of Senator McCain's influence. Now McCain's camp can claim that Davis isn't lobbying now and that this has nothing to do with what is going on now, but the American people aren't stupid and that goes double for Ohioans on this matter. When they go into the ballot booth and see McCain and Obama, they'll know Obama wants change and McCain....well, they see who he works with and the damage they do to the local economy.

Now Out Of The Senate, Lott Is Still A Scumbag

Trent Lott was a real piece of work when he served in the United States Senate and he hasn't parted with his corrupt ways since he left a few months ago. Lott quit the Senate to take a cushy lobbyist job, leaving the State of Mississippi in a tangle (partly due to the Governor) over a special election.

Now three years ago, I remember that George Bush was deeply saddened by the tragic loss of human life and much of New Orleans fact Trent lost his home due to Hurricane Katrina (now thats what I call elitist!). So you'd think that with the Hurricane having personally affected him, he'd take the experience to heart....but then again, he'd have to have one pumping with warm blood to feel empathy for people...and that includes knowing what ethics are.

From ThinkProgress:

Former Mississippi senator Trent Lott, who left Congress last year to become a lobbyist, is alleged to have “urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit.” In a sworn deposition last week, an attorney for State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. asked Lott’s nephew, Zach Scruggs, who had represented the former senator after his house was destroyed by Katrina, if it had been his “custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?” “I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights in response to that question,” replied Scruggs.

Isn't it funny how these Republicans love to cling to the Bill of Rights when it suits them? Fourth amendment for regular folks, eh, whatever. Fifth amendment to save their own hides, sign me up!

Al Franken Goes After Lobbyists In New Ad

Now this is what I want to hear more of from our members of Congress and Senators, both those serving and those running for office:

McCain Campaign Manager Aided Corrupt Pro-Russian Party In Ukraine

The anti-lobbyist candidate John McCain has yet another lobbyist problem ensnaring his campaign. McCain, along with democracy-loving Americans everywhere, cheered Viktor Yushchenko as he and thousands of Ukrainians threw off the yoke of the corrupt Russian elements left in the country less than four years ago. Head honcho lobbyist Rick Davis was found to have lent his services to the pro-Russian "Party of Regions" faction in the Ukraine. With Davis' help, the Party of Regions surged back only two years later. So how does John McCain explain this?

From The Huffington Post:

How much does John McCain know about his campaign manager's lobbying history and potential current business interests inside Ukraine -- and when did he know it?

The stakes of the answer to that question are increasing, due both to the continuing controversy over the role of lobbyists in McCain's second presidential run, as well as the press inquiry into the connections between McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and the global business and political interests in Ukraine, a country represented by the lobbying firm that bears his name -- Davis-Manafort.[...]

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told The Huffington Post that, in between the Party of Regions' 2004 loss and its 2006 victory, there was "an influx of the Davis-Manafort team." Pifer was not on the ground in Ukraine for the 2006 polls, but he recounted that "there was more of an American air" to the Ukrainians working with Davis-Manafort, and that they presented a more refined, media-savvy image.

Pifer later witnessed a December 2006 talk given in Washington, D.C. by the new Ukranian prime minister, who brought Davis's lobbying partner Paul Manafort along in tow as part of his entourage. Speaking to the Huffington Post about that event, Pifer said he noticed with interest that the new prime minister's presentation was "polished and confident...and was tuned to have resonance with Americans."

The story of their resurgence reeks to high hell of sliminess and slick political bullshit. How McCain can avoid this tremendous amount of slime from smearing his campaign is unimaginable. McCain employs Davis exactly because he can make old, tired and corrupt politicians sound new and refined (except for when in front of a green screen). Davis has certainly had his work cut out for him with McCain, but now McCain needs to make him go away, unless he wants this story to stick to his own campaign.

John McCain Hearts AirBus Lobbyists

Mr. American war hero may have flown an American-made plane in Vietnam (or more than just one) but as a Senator, he preferred to go with European-made AirBus jets. I wonder why that is? Maybe this 30 second spot can help me with that question.



Check out more info at Fire The Lobbyists.

Is This Why McCain Touts Phil Gramm

Why John McCain likes to talk about Phil Gramm's "expertise" being added to his campaign is a ploy for the right to show he should be embraced by the Republican Party. Yet sometimes stuff like this comes out and well, gosh darn, it doesn't mesh well with that Straight Talk Expressness.

McCain's Reformist Talk Is Shredding His Campaign

The John McCain the press loves and adores is more myth than man. He talks a good game when he is doing his shpeel, but in reality, he is just as deep in the mud as any other politician that sucks at the teat of the Washington Lobbyist Cabal. As the talk of Clinton v. Obama subsides and the narrative switches over to Obama v. McCain, the tough talk is going to be scrutinized on both sides, whether McCain or his sycophants in the press like it or not. The hypocrisy of who is in his campaign as opposed to what he says about lobbyists is finally starting to bite him in the ass, as several lobbyist/campaign aides have been let go, yet those five are just the tip of the iceberg.

From The Huffington Post:

In glaring defiance of such reformist claims, McCain selected former Texas Congressman Thomas G. Loeffler as his national finance co-chairman, despite the fact that Loeffler matches to perfection those officials McCain demonizes, the ones who pass through a revolving door in order to "leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."

After dumping Loeffler and four other high-dollar Capitol Hill rainmakers, McCain is twisting in the wind as he tries to justify retaining in key campaign posts three other leaders of the special interest community: Campaign Manager Rick Davis, senior strategist Charles (Charlie) Black and top foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann. Every one of them would feel more pride than shame in being described as "special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access who carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided."

Once a politician is forced down the path of ethical purity, however, the genuine difficulty emerges with the realization that few if any of the men and women who help run campaigns have clean hands.

Were McCain to decide to really turn over a new leaf, what would he do, for example, in the case of Mike Hudome, president of MH Media in Bethesda, Md., a firm which has been paid $10.6 million for television ads by the current McCain campaign? Year in, year out, who pays the bread and butter fees that keep food on Hudome's kitchen table? Just take a quick trip on the web to MH Media's web site and you will get a taste of the kind of work MH Media does.

If you click on the link, you can see that they are working for the cigarette industry, fighting those pesky local governments that want to reduce smoking through taxation. Nearly everyone that has influence in his campaign is a lobbyist and McCain knows it. The lobbyists don't care, that game is their bread and butter. They, nor anyone that takes a look at the whole picture knows that someone who talks a tough game on the outside yet is soft on the inside is a fraud. John McCain's Straight Talk Express derailed a long time ago and it is only a matter of time before the nation sees a decrepit, rusted-out bus on the side of the road with his name on it.

Charlie Black Must Go

Five lobbyists have now left McCain's sordid campaign for their dubious ties to unethical companies and countries. None of them however are as bad as Charlie Black, but Charlie thinks he's done nothing wrong....well its time to tell him and McCain that no one believes them anymore.

How To Learn About Washington Lobbyists

It is rather complicated when looking at all the nooks and crannies around K Street, but thankfully the Obama campaign helps us out:



Oh and one more thing, when Clinton answered that question at YearlyKos was it just me that noticed that defensive/aggressive tone in her voice?

President Bush Blasts McCain's Campaign Finance Doubletalk

He said it, not me:

Three Men In A Smoky Room

Albany is an interesting place. It is a place where business is confusing, slow and considerably corrupt. Spitzer said he'd clean it up last year, but he ended up making a big mess with hardly anyone liking him that much anymore. Business continues as usual, the machine keeps humming along. So when Eliot wants to raise the cigarette tax from $1.50 a pack to somewhere in the $2.50 to $3.00 range.

Well the good folks that sell cancer in a box at Philip Morris, oh, excuse me, Altria, the reputable folks at Altria see these possible tax raises they also know a decline in sales to teenagers as well as small declines across the board. So naturally, the lobby money comes out. In the past few weeks it has been to the tune of $100,000 dollars for both parties to share. Of course, lawmakers say they aren't influenced by such things.

From The Times Union:

Much of the money went to the Republican and Democratic Senate campaign committees' housekeeping, or soft money, accounts, including $35,000 to the GOP, which holds the majority, and $30,000 to the Democrats.

The contributions come as the Spitzer administration is considering raising the state's $1.50-per-pack excise tax on cigarettes. Budget experts have noted New Jersey charges $2.57, and groups like the American Cancer Society want a $3 charge.

Additionally, several counties, including Albany, Rockland, Tompkins and Onondaga, have over the past few years discussed raising from 18 to 19 the minimum age at which tobacco can be purchased. Suffolk County already has such a law, said American Cancer Society of New York spokeswoman Jennifer Cucurullo.

Altria gave $10,000 to the Onondaga County Republicans as lawmakers there are revisiting a so-called Tobacco 19 bill that passed in 2006 but was vetoed by then-County Executive Nicholas Pirro. The company also gave $9,500 to the Erie County Democrats.

So if none of this money influences lawmakers, the obvious question is, why give it in the first place? No one seriously believes the cigarette companies care about the communities and that the donations are for civic purposes as the spokeswoman for Altria suggests. I've seen "Thank You For Smoking" and re-learned all that I have known about those scumbags. The true test is when the new numbers for the tax come out, we'll see how much influence that money has over our elected officials in Albany.

"Lobbyists Are People Too" From Pakistan

Hillary's memorable words about lobbyists at YearlyKos continue to haunt her three months later. She definitely loves those influence peddlers that roam the halls of Congress, "people" being paid by all sorts of corporate and national entities, including the government of Pakistan. So when Hillary said that lobbyists were people too, maybe she meant the representatives of a military dictator with nuclear weapons.

From The Huffington Post:

Like others in the race for the White House, Hillary Clinton has strong words for Pakistan, but has yet to propose the United States seriously consider limiting its aid to the country. But unlike the other leading Democratic presidential hopefuls, Edwards and Obama, she has accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Pakistan's lobbyists, Cassidy & Associates. Its founder, Gerald Cassidy, long ago maxed out his donations to her.

According to the Foreign Agents Registration Act website, Pakistan recently hired Cassidy and Associates for a one year, $1.2 million/year contract. The Cassidy contract with Pakistan makes for good reading. For the $1.2 million, "target audiences will be identified for critical message reception," and Cassidy will inventively move beyond pushing pieces in the mainstream media, also focusing on blog outreach. In other words, Cassidy will shill and propagandize for one year, and use its contacts in Washington--presumably including Clinton--to ensure that the billions in aid are not diminished, regardless of what the government does to its citizens and its elections. According to The Hill, Pakistan's lead lobbyist is Robin Raphael, who served in the Clinton administration.

While not prohibited by law, accepting such a donation necessarily raises questions about the effect this relationship--and similar ones--will have on her policies in the White House towards Pakistan should she win the 2008 contest, or in the US Senate should she not. The influence of money is never straightforward, of course. Joe Biden, the other democratic Presidential candidate to receive money from Cassidy, has called for cutting off support to Pakistan if it does not change course.

I'm glad to see that Hillary is such a people-person.

Clinton Loves Her Some Lobbyists

The Presidential forum here is was a few hours ago, but there are still some reverberations coming out of it. Gravel, Richardson, Dodd, Edwards, Clinton, Obama and Kucinich were there, so it had plenty of sparks. Though Clinton shocked us more than even Gravel could imagine doing.

From The Huffington Post:

Senator Clinton silenced a room of approximately one thousand progressive bloggers and activists Friday (actually it was today, Saturday) at the YearlyKos convention when she said, "Yes I will" continue to accept money from lobbyists because, lobbyists "represent real Americans."

Senator Clinton's admission came during a raucous debate over lobbyist donations that started with Senator John Edwards' challenge to Democrats and Republicans to stop accepting money from lobbyists. Senator Edwards had shouted earlier amid loud applause, "Your money is no good here, and we're not going to take it anymore." The Edwards campaign issued a press release right after the challenge, emphasizing that the Senator is the only presidential candidate who has not taken money from federal lobbyists or political action committees.

Senator Clinton's rivals were quick to jump on her admission. Senator Obama, whose campaign has returned lobbyists' money and committed to not accepting additional donations, said, "I disagree that lobbyists don't have disproportionate influence." They are spending money because "they have an agenda."

Senator Edwards asked the audience members to raise their hands if they have a Washington lobbyist working for them. Only three hands were seen.

Hillary tried to backpedal after Edwards and Obama lambasted her, but the damage was done. She said that people should look at her history and see that lobbyists do not influence her. I call bullshit. After championing health care reform in 1993 and 1994, she has been eerily silent on the issue. I wonder if that has anything to do with her being the second highest recipient of health care industry money in Washington?

I'm going to believe the all mighty dollar over her word on this one.

A Trans-Fat Lobbyist

Whenever there is a good cause to help people in their daily lives from the evils of consumerism, you can almost always find a lobbyist that is fighting for the particular industry that might lose revenue from pertinent legislation. New York City led the way last year by passing a ban on trans-fats. Lard companies in the tri-state areas must have been furious. Bakeries were dismayed. Cardiac surgeons were....well, lets not go there, but you get my point. So there has to be someone that tries to defend trans-fats, and guess what, there is.

From RawStory:

60 Minutes reported Sunday on "Dr. Evil," the nickname of lobbyist Rick Berman, who specializes in defending all the products others decry as unhealthy and destructive. Berman, who sees himself as a defender of personal freedom against the "nanny state," told CBS, "Businesses themselves don't find it convenient to take on causes that don't seem politically incorrect and I'm not afraid to do that."

60 Minutes showed an ad produced by Berman's ConsumerFreedom.com, decrying the "food police" who tell you what you can or can't eat. Berman's favorite targets also include animal rights activists, trial lawyers, and union leaders. Berman does not reveal his clients, who are alleged to include numerous fast food restaurant chains and junk food manufacturers, but relies instead on a "clever system of non-profit educational entities," including the Center for Consumer Freedom and the Center for Union Facts.

"While those tactics have made him rich and powerful, it's difficult to find someone who provokes as much venom as Rick Berman," CBS reported. There are many sites online dedicated to countering Berman's claims and exposing the corporate interests behind him, such as ConsumerDeception.com and PRWatch.

It just goes to show that in corporate America, there is a job for anyone who wants to play in the cesspool of lies and deception.

Double-Standard McCain

John McCain used to head the "straight-talk express" when he ran against George Bush in 2000, but now we all know he sings a different tune. Like many other GoOPers, his words and actions are full of hypocrisy. He'll preach one thing and do the opposite. Although his pet project now is to satisfy Wall Street with the question of 'illegal immigration,' he was long known for trying to reform campaign finance. He still rails against the system in his speeches, speaking out against how money influences politics and how there are too many lobbyists in Washington. So do his actions mesh with his words on that?

From The Huffington Post:

"Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided," McCain asserts on his web site, declaring that he "has fought the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."

In actual practice, at least two of McCain's top advisers fit precisely the class of former elected officials he criticizes so sharply. On March 7, 2007, McCain named ex-Texas Representative Tom Loeffler, who has one of the most lucrative and influential practices in the nation's capital, as his campaign co-chair. In the same month, McCain named former Washington Sen. Slade Gorton, now a heavyweight lobbyist, as his honorary chairman for Washington state.

Loeffler's client list includes PhRMA, the drug industry association; Southwest Airlines; Toyota; and Martin Marietta. Gorton represents, among others, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., Weyerhaeuser and Fidelity National Financial.

The list of McCain's lobbyist/advisers goes on and on in the HuffPo report. None of this is really surprising, but it needs to be called out. It is far past the time to let Republicans get away with their rampant hypocrisy. Whether it involves 'moral values,' campaign finance or any other issue, the free ride is over.

Merck, Gov. Rick Perry and $45,000=?

There has been a lot of talk as to why Gov. Rick Perry came out in support of a mandatory vaccination of Guardasil for teenage girls ages 12 and up in Texas schools. Well forget the rank hypocrisy of those that pander to the religious right and forget about advocating for the safety of teenagers. You can also forget about the debate over teen promiscuity and if this action encourages it.

What it all boils down to is the money. It really is that simple with this Republican governor.

From Rawstory:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) says that it's just a coincidence that he and eight other lawmakers received donations of $5,000 each from Merck lobbyists just a few days before mandating the drug giant's HPV cervical cancer vaccine for all females in Texas ages 12 and up.

"There's been a lot of pressure about the implications of vaccinating young girls against sexually-transmitted diseases," says CNN's Ali Velshi in the video below, "some people thinking that that encourages promiscuity at that age."

He reports though that "this thing is coming undone by word, rumor and report of connection between Rick Perry's office and Merck."

Governor Perry says that is just a coincidence that he received $5,000 from Merck along with eight other lawmakers days before his decision came down. It is also just another coincidence that his former chief of staff is now a lobbyist for Merck.

How many coincidences does it take for people to get what is going on here. All we need to do is follow the money and the connections. Merck now realizes the folly of their actions and is pulling back from lobbying the drug. The question is if they are backing down quick enough to avoid the consequences of being seen as the dirty drug dealers that they are.