Posted on 05/29/2005 2:30:01 PM PDT by RWR8189
The speaker's inner circle is a political money-raising machine that provides a window on the way Washington works
WASHINGTON -- In his first campaign for the Illinois legislature nearly a quarter-century ago, Dennis Hastert had a problem. He had plenty of campaign posters, but no wooden stakes to make yard signs.
His friend Dan Mattoon had the solution. Mattoon knew where former Rep. Tom Corcoran kept hundreds of wooden stakes and, as lore has it, he took them for Hastert without bothering to tell Corcoran.
Since that time, Mattoon, 52, now one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists, and Hastert (R-Ill.), 63, speaker of the House of Representatives, have been joined like a poster nailed to a stake.
Mattoon plays a vital role in the political corporation that is Hastert Inc., a powerful and flourishing enterprise run by a select few that has in its charter everything from preserving a Republican majority in Congress to Social Security changes to funding a bridge in the Fox River Valley.
He has served as an unofficial emissary of the speaker to other members or business interests while at the same time balancing the needs of his clients, which include telecommunications and pharmaceutical companies with aggressive legislative ambitions.
His lobbying firm, PodestaMattoon, hired Hastert's son, Joshua, who had run a DeKalb music store and recording label called Seven Dead Arson, to join the high-powered practice barely a year after Joshua moved to Washington to make a go at lobbying. Mattoon and his wife, Jane, also are listed as officers for two of Hastert's political funds.
"They're brothers--brothers-in-arms, good friends," said Corcoran, who is a Washington lobbyist himself. "They work together. They have similar views. They help each other."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I know at this point in time I am less then impressed with the republican leadership in either house.
You can put out whatever propaganda of hastert or frist.
To hell with them.
One pissed off republican.
Well isn't THAT special???
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