The Hill gives a run-down of the top "sharpshooters" and corporate lobbyists in Washington. An important list to know the behind the scenes power players. Here are the listed lobbyists who used to be elected members of Congress:
- Dick Armey, Piper Rudnick Gray Cary
- John Ashcroft, The Ashcroft Group
- Al D’Amato, Park Strategies
- Bob Dole, Alston & Bird
- Tom Downey, Downey McGrath
- Slade Gorton, Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds
- Bob Livingston, The Livingston Group
- Bill Paxon, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- J.C. Watts, The J.C. Watts Cos.
- Vin Weber, Clark and Weinstock Weber
Out on Assignment
I thought I'd take the bull by the horns, as it were, and devote a little time to the assignment desk project by taking a field trip to Crystal City, and have a gander at one of the projects that my Congressman, Rep. Jim Moran, touted on his Web site.
$3,308,000 for construction of a two-lane busway connecting Crystal City in Arlington and Potomac Yard in Arlington/Alexandria. Funding will go towards building additional bus station stops and pedestrian/bicycle accommodations. The busway will provide dedicated bus lanes and bus station stops for Metrobuses, ART buses, and DASH buses serving the corridor.Crystal City is a string of high rise office and apartment buildings (high being a relative term--we're not talking downtown Manhattan, by any means) bounded on the west by U.S. Route 1--which is a six-lane throughfare--and on the east the grounds of Washington National Airport. There's a lot of defense contractors in the area, and a lot of federal government agencies rent office space there (this page lists all the office buildings owned or leased by the U.S. Government in Virginia's eighth district; all those "crystal" buildings--Crystal Plaza, Crystal Gateway, Crystal Square--are there). Continue reading
Matson: Shooting Gallery:
Trent Lott’s Fire Extinguisher:
Oil Company Lobbying:
So you want your gas prices to go down? You're going to need a lot of money to counter the oil companies lobbying heft. Political Money Line shows us how much the oil companies spent in lobbying expenses last year:
The final total for the entire industry reaches $33,173,092.
Another Lawmaker Lawyers Up:
The Great Falls Tribune reports that Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) has lawyered up in the face of allegations that he aided Jack Abramoff's clients in exchange for favors and campaign contributions. His lawyer, Ralph Caccia, works on white collar crimes cases and represented a friend of Monica Lewinsky before Ken Starr's grand jury. The Legal Times provides a graphic that illustrates the cast of characters in the Jack Abramoff scandal and who they have hired to represent them.
Continue readingIn The Beginning There Was Light:
Welcome to In Broad Daylight, a Sunlight blog aimed at tracking news and blogs that cover the many creatures in today's Washington including members of Congress, lobbyists, campaign contributions, private junkets, earmarks, deals, and, yes, sometimes crooks. If you want to discover what your members of Congress are up to, and who's talking about it, this is the place to come. If you want to contribute to an open discussion about what's going on in Washington this is the place to be as I will need your help to shine light on the dark corners of Washington. If you want to know more about the Sunlight Foundation you can read Jeff Birnbaum’s article in today’s Washington Post or just go ahead and explore the site. I’ve been posting here at In Broad Daylight for quite a while and you should go ahead and check out my previous posts to get a taste of what we’re going to be talking about here. I hope that you join the conversation.
Continue readingEmergency Pork:
Today both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ran stories about the pork-filled emergency supplemental bill that contains Sen. Trent Lott's (R-MS) now infamous "Magic Railroad". Some congressmen and Senators are not happy with the $15 billion worth of extra picnic shoulders thrown into a bill that is intended to provide funds for rebuilding New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and Iraq. Tim Chapman at the Capitol Report writes that both Mike Pence (R-IN) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) have called on the President to veto the bill if the extra money is not removed. Pence called the bill a "fruit basket" of unrelated spending. John Spratt (D-SC), the ranking Dem on the House Budget Committee, said, "A lot of these things are desirable, and some are even necessary, but they don't belong in an emergency spending bill."
I haven't been by the Capitol lately but I've heard they're hanging this new sign out front:
Mr. Barbour Goes (Back) To Washington:
Tim Chapman at Porkbusters writes that good ole boy ex-lobbyist and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) is off to Washington to fight for Trent Lott's Magic Railroad:
Barbour, the former RNC Chairman and top DC lobbyist turned Governor is rumored to make an appearance tomorrow at the weekly Senate Republican policy lunch. The Governor is in town to provide much needed support to his Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, who are both under fire for securing the largest earmark ever.
I believe that Barbour will use this image to show other members of Congress the merits of the railroad.
Doolittle Lawyers Up:
According to the Sacramento Bee, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), who has come under fire for his connections to Jack Abramoff and his wife's job as a fundraiser, is hiring a lawyer. Doolittle's lawyer is David G. Barger "the former president of the Virginia Bar Association's criminal law section and a former assistant U.S. attorney, who later was an associate of Starr's in the Whitewater investigation." Barger is perhaps best known for his prosecutorial harrassment of a 52-year old single mother in connection to unsubstantiated claims made by Kathleen Willey that former President Bill Clinton groped her. This Washington Post story from over the weekend provides a good look as to why Doolittle is hiring a lawyer this week.
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