Free Republic

There’s fallout from the July 27 Houston Chronicle exposé of a trip to Azerbaijan by 10 member of the House that violated House rules. The trip was ostensibly sponsored by nonprofit groups but was actually funded by oil companies BP, Conoco Phillips and SOCAR, the national oil company of Azerbaijan. According to the New York Post today: Rep. Gregory Meeks pushed to let an Iran-backed natural-gas project dodge US sanctions — after attending an illicit junket paid for by energy companies. Also from the Post: “Congressman Meeks went on a 2013 Congressional trip to Baku, Azerbaijan, subsidized in part...

Now when you hear babbling on about the Koch Brothers, you can see the hypocrisy and look at who he is bankrolled by. From Engadget: The murky world of lobby groups bankrolling politicians is garnering more attention, but is there a way to find out which representatives are in the pocket without a lot of tedious research? A 16-year-old programmer has developed a browser plugin that, when you mouse-over the name of a US lawmaker, will serve up a list of which parties have donated to their campaign funds, and the quantities. Greenhouse (geddit?) is currently available for Chrome, Firefox...

how obscene wealth can be amassed through rent-seeking and influence-peddling in Washington D.C., and of the hoary means by which the princelings of the capital and their consorts maintain and grow that wealth. They tell stories not only of an ugly divorce, but of the power of lobbying, of how one family maneuvered to the center of the nation’s dominant political party, of the transactional relationships, gargantuan self-regard, and empty posturing that insulates, asbestos-like, the D.C. bubble. That the broken couple now uses the tools of their trade—the phone-call to a friend, the selective leaking of documents, the hiring of...

Tony Podesta (brother of John Podesta ) and wife Heather formed The Podesta Group and Heather Podesta + Partners in 2007. John Podesta's Center for American Progress completed the three-pronged Podesta empire. Brother John is currently a senior advisor to President Obama. Heather launched her lobby firm with the catchy slogan "We Know People." One of her party invitations read as follows: “The prix fixe includes the Select Committee on Intelligence for the first course followed by your choice of Appropriations, Judiciary, or Rules Committees.” Now two-thirds of that empire is crumbling because of the divorce case of Tony Podesta....

Attention, class: A Common Core mouthpiece wants to rap my knuckles with his Gates Foundation-funded ruler. In response to my column two weeks ago about the marketing overlords pushing the Fed Ed racket, Chad Colby of Achieve Inc. demanded corrections. Let's go to school. "I wanted to take a moment to highlight two points that were incorrect regarding Achieve," Colby complained. "Contrary to Ms. Malkin's assertion, Achieve employs no lobbyists and we never have." No? Never? Someone didn't do his homework. Mr. Colby, meet Patricia Sullivan. She's the founding executive director of Achieve and a career lobbyist who has bounced...

Tim Carney covers the crony capitalism beat for the Washington Examiner, and reported recently that former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has joined the board of a company that during his tenure benefited from extensive subsidies from the department he headed. Carney summed it up: "So LaHood used his power as a top government official to give taxpayer money to Proterra. Now he stands to personally benefit if the company succeeds." Similar revolving door relationships are seen in this state as well. A few weeks ago former state representative Andy Coulouris appeared before a legislative committee in Lansing where...

U.S. business schools are failing to provide students the skills to succeed in today's business environment. The textbooks, case studies and even the experience of entrepreneurs-turned-professors are proving irrelevant in the current marketplace. Today it is increasingly politicians who pick the winners in the businesses world — not creativity, grit, determination and a little elbow grease. So while my suggestion that business schools should update their curriculums is tongue-in-cheek, the reality is that knowing how to lobby politicians, procure economic incentive packages, secure bailouts in the event of temporary setbacks and use taxes and regulations to undercut competitors are, unfortunately,...

The French company Publicis Groupe has acquired Qorvis Communications, one of Washington’s more active public relations firms in politics and lobbying. Publicis will wrap Qorvis into MSLGROUP, its strategic communications and engagement firm. Publicis is one of the world’s biggest marketing companies and is headquartered in Paris. Qorvis will now operate under the name of MSLGROUP in Washington with the firm’s managing partner and CEO, Michael Petruzzello, as its new president. Petruzzello will also be the agency’s North America practice director of public affairs. Qorvis has more than 80 employees and is expected to increase Publicis’s reach into the Washington...

If you've been paying attention to politics for any length of time you've probably noticed that there are several different types of elected officials. Not just in terms of partisanship or ideology, but in the sense of how active or vocal they are. If you've ever done any lobbying, you've noticed a difference in how reliable they are in terms of their vote and how hard you have to work to nail them down. Here's a shorthand way to categorize elected officials: Hopeless: These are the guys (and gals) that are so far on the other side of the street...

Retiring lawmakers are likely to find a tough job market next year on K Street. Several lawmakers — many of them veterans with centrist bonafides — plan to retire after the 2014 election, making them prime recruits for lobby firms, trade groups and corporate boards. While corporate headhunters see a future on K Street for many of the retiring lawmakers, they warn that sluggish lobbying revenues and gridlock on Capitol Hill are depressing demand. “With revenues down, it's not going to be as fruitful. It will slowly pick up but we are still in a slump when it comes to...

Throughout the history of the country, Congress has done some pretty dumb things and their recent abysmal approval ratings shows that the American public is losing faith. Not to say it’s an institution built on imprudent thoughts and actions. No. In reality it’s a venerable institution responsible for some of the most important legal, social and political advancements in modern history. But it’s hasn’t always been smooth sailing. For example, Congress once earmarked $50,000 in taxpayer money to support a museum honoring mules? Congress also spent $1.9 million on a Center for Public Service that would eventually honor a member...

"...........The signs of the new Washington are everywhere — from the Tiffany & Co. store that Fairfax County development officials boast is the most profitable in the country to the new Tesla dealership in Tysons Corner. Every morning on the Beltway, contractors, lobbyists and some of the country’s highest-paid lawyers sit in the nation’s worst traffic. Sports talk radio crackles with rants about the Redskins and the latest ads from Deltek, a firm that advises companies on “capture strategies” for winning government contracts. The radio signal doesn’t extend much beyond the Washington commute. It doesn’t have to. The ad barely...

An advocacy group for K Street is moving forward with a rebranding effort that will remove the word “lobbyist” from its name. The board of the American League of Lobbyists (ALL) on Tuesday announced it has recommended to members that the group change its name to the Association of Government Relations Professionals. The group says the board “overwhelmingly” backed the name change as a way to more accurately “represent the range of associated professions involved in the government affairs, lobbying and public affairs community.” ALL officially began moving forward with the rebranding effort last month, as first reported by The...

Generally speaking, the nation's colleges and universities portray themselves as institutions engaged only in the pursuit of knowledge. So who would have guessed that universities are some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington D.C.? Apparently, the green of money...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is stepping up his gun control campaign by asking donors not to support four Democratic senators who opposed a bill to expand background checks. Bloomberg’s made the request in a letter to about 1,100 New York City residents. It comes as a mayor’s group that he co-founded plans a national bus tour aimed at getting senators who voted against the proposed legislation in April to change their minds. …

U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said. A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group. The officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed companies such as...

A group of charter public school advocates, private-sector business people and state employees have been meeting to come up with ideas on how to provide better public education at a lower cost through technology and competition. The group hopes to provide a “value school” model costing about $5,000 per pupil, reports The Detroit News, which broke the story. If it works, this would mean an education at substantially less than the $13,000 school districts receive now in per-student revenue or even the roughly $7,000 per pupil they receive strictly from the state. Most of the criticism of the program has...

Michigan law requires public school districts to report publicly on their website how much taxpayer money they use to lobby the Legislature. But districts in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne County have found a way to work around the law. In practice, this means that these public school districts can appear less politically active than they really are, while simultaneously spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on political lobbying. The Setup Enter the Tri-County Alliance. The TCA is a 501c(4) non-profit, which means it is a tax-exempt organization that can lobby for or against legislation. The organization spends its money on...

When a lobbyist for families of Newtown shooting victims called the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to set up a meeting, the first response was a standard D.C. offer. They could get a meeting with her staff, and a quick and simple “hello” from Collins herself, they were told. The families’ answer: not good enough. According to their lobbyists, the families have a rule against staff-only meetings: They won’t do them. They insist on sitting down with the senators themselves.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group that includes Yoko Ono and other A-List celebrities, is violating the state's lobbying law, according to the document obtained by The Associated Press. The Independent Oil & Gas Association, an industry group that supports gas drilling, filed the complaint Tuesday with the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The complaint is based on an AP story that found that Artists Against Fracking and its members, including Ono, her son Sean Lennon, actors Mark Ruffalo and Robert De Niro...