Podesta clan's close ties to Obama pay off big

John Podesta, chief executive officer of the liberal Center for American Progress, may be President Obama's closest confidant outside of the administration -- he ran the transition and has visited the White House at least 37 times according to visitor logs. Tony Podesta, John's brother, is a corporate lobbyist and a leading fundraiser for Democrats.

On at least a handful of issues, John's CAP has advocated the same solutions Tony has lobbied for. On some of those issues, CAP has partnered with the companies that hire Tony as a lobbyist. Given Obama's anti-lobbyist rhetoric -- and the gaping holes in his lobbyist policies that have been repeatedly exposed -- it's worth examining where the work of the president's confidant, John, dovetails with the business of lobbyist and fundraiser, Tony.

Wal-Mart had given at least $500,000 to CAP, according to Wal-Mart's Web site. But there was another connection: Tony Podesta was (and still is) a lobbyist for Wal-Mart, on issues that include health care policy. Wal-Mart had hired Podesta in September 2006 (the firm was then called Podesta Mattoon), just about when CAP, Big Labor, and Wal-Mart started "work[ing] closely in support of health care reform."

Tony has represented BP since 2006, recently lobbying for current climate legislation. BP was a prized ally for Sen. John Kerry, who is leading the charge in the Senate for a global warming bill.

According to the Wall Street Journal, John Podesta is nearly writing the president's response to the BP spill. While Obama hasn't coddled BP, he is using the spill to advance the climate legislation BP supports and for which Tony Podesta has been lobbying.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/06/another_chicagoan_tapped_for_o_1.html

Another Chicagoan tapped for Obama post
By
Lynn Sweet
on June 24, 2010 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Below, from the White House.....

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_______________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 24, 2010

President Obama Announces His Intent to Nominate Members to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

WASHINGTON - Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service:

· Rick Christman, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· Jane Hartley, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· Marguerite W. Kondracke, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· Matthew McCabe, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· John Podesta, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· Lisa Quiroz, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

· Phyllis N. Segal, Member, Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

(snip)

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/06/30/obamas_coffee_house_loophole

Obama’s Coffee House Loophole

Comment:

The following is a quoted excerpt from: www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org

“John David Podesta was born to an Italian-American father and a Greek-American mother on January 15, 1949 in Chicago. Podesta rose from a solidly blue-collar background; his father worked in a factory for 50 years.

In the 1960s John was introduced to the antiwar Left by his older brother Anthony. The two brothers worked on the Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern presidential campaigns in 1968 and 1972, respectively.

John Podesta first met Bill Clinton in 1970, when he and Clinton worked together on anti-war candidate Joseph Duffy’s unsuccessful Senate campaign in Connecticut. Podesta and Clinton subsequently worked for the McGovern campaign in 1972.

Podesta graduated from Knox College in Illinois in 1971 and Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. He landed a job with the federal government right out of law school, working as a litigator for the Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice from 1976 to 1977.

Podesta served on the staff of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) from 1981 to 1988. Leahy was an early advocate of circumventing the U.S. Constitution by gaining control over federal courts. Podesta assisted Leahy in pioneering the indiscriminate smearing and filibustering of any and all Republican judicial nominees — a practice previously unknown in Washington.

In 1988 Podesta teamed up with his brother Anthony to form the Washington lobbying firm Podesta Associates. One of their first clients was Michael Dukakis. John Podesta served as opposition research director — commonly dubbed a “dirt digger” — for Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign.

From January 1993 to 1995, Podesta worked as a White House staff secretary and Assistant to President Clinton.

He served as Counselor to Democratic Senate Leader Thomas Daschle from 1995 to 1996 and then returned to the White House, where he finished out the last years of the Clinton administration — first as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff (1997-98) and then as Chief of Staff (October 1998 to January 2001).

During his years in the Clinton White House, Podesta helped suppress numerous federal investigations into Clinton wrongdoing, and helped short-circuit the Clinton impeachment proceedings through backroom deals.

The Clintons recognized Podesta’s talent for scandal-suppression early. While still a mere staff secretary at the White House in 1993, Podesta found himself swamped with so many scandal clean-up assignments that he nicknamed himself, “Secretary of [Expletive].” “He’s good at it,” James Carville remarked to the Washington Post.

Podesta’s most lasting contribution to the leftist cause came through his promotion of a strategy that White House aides dubbed “Project Podesta.” This was a system that enabled the Clintons to push through unpopular policies that neither Congress nor the American people wanted. Its implementation marked a dramatic tilt in the balance of power, giving the executive branch an unprecedented ability to force its will on the legislative branch.

Project Podesta enabled the President to bypass Congress through the use of executive orders, presidential decision directives, White-House-sponsored lawsuits, vacancy appointments to high federal office, selective regulatory actions against targeted corporations, and a host of other extra-constitutional tactics.

In short, Podesta showed the Clintons that they could gain by force what they might fail to achieve through legislation. “Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kind of cool,” quipped White House aide Paul Begala to The New York Times on July 5, 1998, in response to questions about the Clintons’ growing disdain for the will of Congress.

(snip)

Podesta was appointed President and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP) at its founding on July 7, 2003. He was hand-picked for the job by CAP founders George Soros and Morton H. Halperin, according to a March 1, 2004 report in The Nation by Robert Dreyfuss. Inside sources have described CAP as “the official Hillary Clinton think tank” — a media spin machine and policy generator designed to serve as a springboard for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential ambitions.

Podesta was a featured speaker at the March 2008 “Take Back America” conference of Campaign for America’s Future, where he declared that global warming was a “severe national security problem” that President Bush had failed to address in any meaningful way.

After Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, Podesta and at least ten additional CAP experts served as some of his most influential advisers.”

Marguerite W. Kondracke

Director
Saks, Inc.
New York , NY
Sector: SERVICES / Department Stores

Director , LifePoint Hospitals, Inc.
Brentwood , TN
Sector: HEALTHCARE / Hospitals
64 Years Old

Marguerite W. Kondracke, Since October 2004 President and Chief Executive Officer of America’s Promise. The Alliance for Youth, a not-for-profit children’s advocacy organization founded in 1997 by General Colin Powell. Ms. Kondracke was employed in the following positions: Staff Director, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families between April 2003 and September 2004; President and Chief Executive Officer of The Brown Schools, the nation’s largest provider of treatment services for troubled adolescents, from August 2000 to April 2003; and President and Chief Executive Officer of Frontline Group, Inc., an employee training company, from July 1999 to August 2000. Ms. Kondracke is co-founder, former Chief Executive Officer, and currently a board member of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, a corporate child-care provider; a Trustee of Duke University; and serves on the board of directors of LifePoint Hospitals, Inc

Marguerite W. Kondracke

Nickname: Sallee

Gender: Female

Marguerite W. Kondracke lives and/or works in Alexandria, VA.

Marguerite W. Kondracke personal relations:Morton M. Kondracke - spouse

relationships:America’s Promise, The Alliance for Youth - president

Duke University - trustee

Independent Sector - director

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. - director

Malaria No More - director

Pew Partnership for Civic Change - advisory board member
Saks Inc. - director

Marguerite W. Kondracke past relationships:
Lamar Alexander - special assistant

Corporate Family Solutions - co-founder

Tennessee Department of Human Services - commissioner

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