Heather Podesta, a Storm in the Summer of the Lobbyist
With front-burner legislation making this a busy summer for lobbyists, Heather Podesta pauses in her office by a picture of her husband
..."This is a very good time to be a Democratic lobbyist . . . it's incredibly exciting to be able to engage with Democrats and really see things happen," Podesta says one afternoon at her office in one of those cool, restored red-brick buildings on E Street. "It's always a good time to be Heather Podesta."
...There's so much work, in fact, that certain painful sacrifices are required. The couple used to escape to the beloved retreat they own in Venice 10 or 12 times a year, but "now we only maybe get there six times a year," Heather Podesta says. Leaving Washington doesn't always really mean leaving Washington.
In Venice they've hosted, among others, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, though she was a mere governor back then, and hung with, by Podesta's count, something like 20 members of Congress (Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley, New York Rep. Eliot Engel, even Teddy Kennedy).