Podesta clan's close ties to Obama pay off big

Washington Examiner ^ | June 30, 2010 | Timothy P. Carney

[maggief]

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.

(snip)

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."

(snip)

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.

[Liz]

There's that hospital connection again....Can money be laundered through the medical system?

Are you kidding----a hospital is the plusperfect place for crooks to score bigtime.
There's billions in Medicare/Aid to tap into and the O/Care trillions are coming.

It's so easy to ripoff Medicare/Aid, a child could do it.

How profitable is it? Keep in mind the first thing Rahm Emanuel did as COS
was to put his doctor brother in charge of Medicare/Aid billions.