Lobbying

McCain Lobbyist Troubles Continue

A pair of stories from The New York Times reveal Sen. John McCain has not divorced himself from lobbyists as much as his presidential campaign would have you believe. The first story, which appeared Sunday, reveals that both McCain and his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, have received campaign contributions from lobbyists -- but McCain has received about 30 times more money than Obama. From The Times:

Lindsay Graham, You Heartbreaker

Lindsay Graham drives me crackers. Despite being a consistent and often brave enemy of torture, he can also cover up with the best of them."We’re not breaking new ground here," Graham said, despite the facts.

Next Week: J Street's Pro-Peace-And-Justice Endorsements

In April, I wrote about J Street, the first-ever Jewish-led political organization dedicated to a building an American constituency for an immediate and just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Monday they're going to step their game up and endorse their first slate of candidates. From a statement:

Foreign Lobbying Loophole Bill on the Way

A bill to close loopholes that shield lobbyists from disclosing their relationships with foreign clients is expected to be introduced in the Senate today, reports The New York Times. Under the current law, lobbyists representing foreign entities in the United States must notify the Department of Justice. However, the law does not cover meetings outside the U.S., even if a U.S. official is involved.

Abramoff, Bush Together on Camera

Trolling through the House oversight committee's report this afternoon, it became clear that Jack Abramoff was a bad influence on U.S. policy in the Northern Mariana Islands. Otherwise, the report, which said upfront that it was limited by key players taking the 5th, left more questions than answers. Here are a couple of the biggest questions (and a few photos of Abramoff and Bush):

Abramoff and the Northern Marianas Islands

At the start of the Bush administration, the Mariana Islands were a top client of Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm. The string of 15 islands between Hawaii and the Phillipines has been a part of the U.S. since World War II. The islands get to use the "Made in the USA" label, though the garment industry there, dependent on a female labor force, is notorious for sweatshops and human-rights abuses.  Abramoff flew former House Majority Leader Tom Delay and some of Delay's staff to the islands to push for federal labor law exemptions for his client. The House enforcer and his staff had a tropical holiday in the process., snorkeling in the calm Pacific waters and playing golf at the four championship courses.

Tale of a Political Firing

The Bush administration has claimed that uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff got "nothing" out of his hundreds of visits and gifts to the White House. But the House oversight committee has the goods on Abramoff getting the White House to can a top State Dept. official.

State Dept. Clinton appointee Alan Stayman pushed for labor reforms in the Northern Mariana Islands. That proved an unwise career move as the Marianas Islands was a client of Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenburg Traurig. In 2001, White House officials worked with Greenburg Traurig to orchestrate the firing of Stayman even though they knew State was "very upset" with the dismissal.

The committee report gets into the minutiae of a series of emails between top Greenburg lobbyist Tony Rudy (who in between his work with Abramoff was a top staffer for Tom DeLay) and the White House. Rudy wrote to Monica Kladakis, deputy associate director in the White House Office of presidential personnel, saying he wanted Stayman fired.

Abramoff 'Point of Information' for White House

Remember Jack Abramoff? Maybe the only person newspapers took to start calling a "super lobbyist?" Abramoff is in jail today, convicted for conspiracy to bribe public officials, tax evasion and defrauding a bank to buy a Florida casino cruise line.  He's most notorious for rampant influence peddling in the Republican Party, buying meals and gifts for disgraced former lawmakers like Tom DeLay (R-Tx.) and Bob Ney (R-Oh.). But the extent of his influence in the White House is not fully known.

Virtually 'Every' Industry Sharpens Knives for Climate Bill

The Wall Street Journal reports that  "virtually every special interest in the economy" is working to minimize the cost of the climate change bill under debate right now in the Senate. The bill, which is not likely to pass this year anyway, would require companies to pay for the right to emit green house gases, with the goal of cutting emissions by 65% by 2050. No real surprise here.  There's never been a cap on how much carbon dioxide the United States can emit in burning such fossil fuels as oil, natural gas and coal. The bill essentially amounts to a new corporate tax, which as the WSJ points out, is never attractive to industry.

 

The Plot Thickens

It's bad enough that former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm worked for a major player in the subprime market and lobbied Congress on the mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising presumptive Republican nominee John McCain on economic matters. That revelation this week from MSNBC prompted more talk of McCain's tangled relationships with lobbyists.

But it gets even worse, according to an insightful piece by David Corn in Mother Jones magazine. In "Foreclosure Phil," he recounts Gramm's role eight years ago in pushing through Congress something called The Commodity Futures Modernization Act.

The Price of Complaining

A front page story in The Washington Post  this morning notes the rise in consumers finding their way to bankruptcy court. For many, the decision is a move to save their houses. (As Mary notes, other desperate mortgage holders have just walked away.)

 

Those who file are finding a much tougher set of laws than what was in place before 2006. In 2005 Congress passed a now-infamous reform package (among those who follow this sort of thing) that makes it more difficult to file for personal bankruptcy. On top of the higher filing hurdle, once you are in court, it's become more difficult to discharge debt. 

 

The Post note's the reforms toward the end of the piece:

New at TWI

With the blog post below, TWI is delighted to welcome its newest reporter -- Laura McGann. Well, sort of new, since she is the managing editor of this site and already vital to its workings. But she missed writing -- and certainly has a knack for it, as we all saw with her stellar work on TPMmuckraker. So she has decided to walk the beat of money in politics -- as if she already didn't have enough to keep her occupied and off the street.

Who Is a Lobbyist?

Until I read Michael Isikoff's latest Newsweek story, if asked, I'd have called David Axelrod a political strategist, maybe a consultant. Now, I'd have to tack on the term lobbyist.

 

Isikoff points to the activities of Axelrod's consulting firm, ASK Public Strategies, which runs campaigns for heavy hitters, like Commonwealth Edison and Cablevision. Cablevision's $1.1 million deal with ASK to drum up support to block a new Jet's stadium was called the "largest lobbying contract" of the year by New York's lobbying commission in 2004.