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Report highlights which lobbying firms back Romney in 2012 Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is the clear front-runner in picking up support from lobbyists at some of K Street’s most profitable firms, according to a report released last week by First Street Research Group. That’s based on the number of lobbyists in those firms who are advising Romney’s campaign, collecting or “bundling” contributions for him, and contributing money to the campaign. First Street, the political intelligence unit of CQ Press, compiled data from Federal Election Commission filings and conducted independent research on individual lobbyists who Romney and Rick Santorum have...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Republican candidate Rick Santorum has won support from American conservatives for his views on social issues but a habit of hyperbole may lead to stumbles in his White House bid. In Boise, Idaho, on Tuesday, Santorum compared contraception to deodorant and soap when making a point about why he believes birth control should not be covered by health insurers. "Let's mandate that every insurance policy covers toothpaste. Deodorant. That might be a good idea, right? Have everyone cover deodorant, right? Soap. I mean, where do you stop?" Santorum also fell back on a well-worn Republican criticism that...

Mitt Romney, whose campaign is preparing a multi-million dollar wave of negative advertising to persuade voters that Rick Santorum should not be president, says he is open to the possibility of choosing Santorum to be his running mate should Romney win the Republican nomination. Romney appeared on Fox News Wednesday morning and was asked, "You and Rick Santorum, we haven't seen you go head-to-head yet…In the big picture, could you see a scenario where you two team up?" "Oh, I think it's always possible to have people come together in our party, whether it's Rick and I, or others in...

The latest Republican to surge in polls, Rick Santorum is trying to turn his newfound strength into something lasting. Curious Republicans now pack his rallies. Supporters have funneled nearly $4 million to his formerly empty campaign account over the past seven days. And his staff is plotting an aggressive strategy to challenge Mitt Romney in Romney's native Michigan and beyond. But things don't look so strong just beneath the surface. Santorum is underfunded and outmanned. He's still lacking in organization, a month and a half into the primary season. And, after he won three contests in a single day last...

Newt Gingrich criticized Republican rival Rick Santorum on Tuesday afternoon for his “complete misunderstanding of modern warfare” over the former Pennsylvania senator’s remarks on women in combat. Santorum on Thursday said he had “concerns about women in frontline combat.” “I think that could be a very compromising situation … where people naturally, you know, may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved,” Santorum told CNN’s John King. Gingrich fired back at Santorum, calling his credentials to be commander in chief into question during a press availability...

Mitt Romney has been quick to justify his record of laying-off workers and closing plants as CEO of Bain Capital by wrapping himself in the “creative destruction” of free market capitalism But Romney’s idea of capitalism is that you can fire workers and strip companies on the way up, and then if you are big and influential enough, demand taxpaying workers bail you out on the way down. While Romney’s supporters are putting up a heavy smoke screen, Tea partiers should understand that, as a supporter of the TARP Wall Street bailout, Romney’s “creative destruction” only applies to Main Street,...

....Perry started slashing away at Romney’s record as chief executive at Bain Capital on Monday, but was more caustic Tuesday in condemning the firm’s practice of making money in corporate takeover deals that sometimes triggered job losses. "They’re vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for the company to get sick, and then they sweep in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton,” Perry told about 100 seniors here at the Sun City retirement complex. ......Perry went on to castigate the Obama administration for allegedly failing to stop “self-dealing” on...

George W. Bush-era energy policy wonks are finding a new home with Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor can count on support from a who’s who of former Bush officials willing to raise money, brainstorm policy ideas and generally help spread the word among the ranks of like-minded GOP energy experts. Already on board the Romney train are Jim Connaughton, who ran Bush’s White House Council on Environmental Quality for all eight years; former Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner; former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead; and former EPA congressional affairs liaison Edward Krenik. The former Bush officials all told POLITICO...

On October 29th, when I sat on a panel during the first ever Grizzly Fest Summit, I spoke about being “disillusioned” with the state of politics and Washington DC prior to learning about Governor Palin in 2007. Disgraced former high-power DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff had a lot to do with that because as the Washington Post described back in 2006 (emphasis): Former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to cooperate...

[...]Take AT&T, for example. The telecommunications giant is pushing for the supercommittee to increase wireless spectrum, reform corporate tax and minimize government regulation. The company, which is also in the midst of fighting for its merger with T-Mobile, bundled $71,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through the first six months of this year and $20,750 last year for Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who co-chairs the supercommittee and runs the campaign arm that is charged with maintaining a Senate majority next November. In fact, Murray received the most bundled contributions of any individual supercommittee lawmaker since last year, also taking...

It has begun. Republican Senate aides who desperately want the majority back so they can add an extra zero to their eventual K-Street salary package once they stop prostituting themselves to lobbyists and instead become lobbyists prostituting themselves to squishy Republicans are attacking Jim DeMint. In addition to their own self-interest, you can be sure they are expressing their bosses’ frustrations.Now, you and I both know that Jim DeMint swooping in at the last minute to endorse Christine O’Donnell had as much to do with her victory as a butterfly flapping its wings in China 340 years ago last Monday....

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, says the White House is committing “willful violations” of federal and presidential records acts, along with violating disclosure laws, and is calling for a congressional oversight hearing into administration officials meetings with lobbyists. The problem arises from White House officials having met with K- Street lobbyists hundreds of times over the past 18 months at “off-campus” coffee shops. Some lobbyists claimed they frequently receive e-mails from White House staff members’ personal accounts, rather than from their official White House accounts. CREW says this is “an apparent attempt...

K Street appears to have cashed in on the lengthy battle over healthcare reform. About 1,750 businesses and organizations spent at least $1.2 billion in 2009 to lobby on health reform and other issues, according to a study from the Center for Public Integrity released Friday. A precise figure isn’t available because lobbying disclosure forms don’t require companies or other groups to itemize how much they spend to lobby on a particular issue. The largest lobbying firm in terms of revenue, Patton Boggs, set the pace in healthcare lobbying too, according to the Center. Fifty-three clients paid Patton Boggs $7.68...

J Street has launched a campaign in support of Washington's firm stance on Israel's latest approved building plan in East Jerusalem, the dovish U.S. pro-Israel lobby announced on Tuesday. Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem strained ties with the U.S., which has said it regarded last week's decision - made public while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel - as an insult. Recent U.S.-Israel tensions were used by "hawkish pro-Israel activists," according to the announcement posted on J Street's website, "to attack the Obama Administration over Israel, urging the Administration to slow down...

K Street prospered in 2009 despite the lingering recession, as many firms reported sharp revenue increases thanks to a busy Democratic agenda. On Wednesday, at least 19 firms reported growth in their lobbying revenue from 2008 to 2009, according to new records released under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Lobbyists credited the surge in revenue to Washington actively looking to turn around the downturn as well as an aggressive legislative agenda by the incoming Obama administration and substantial Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. “It was an amazing year in terms of the number of things that came up and...

A wide ranging congressional investigation into Countrywide Financial will dig into how the mortgage giant went about picking government officials to offer its VIP program, according to aides involved with the inquiry. Thanks to an agreement between Republicans and Democrats reached late Friday night, any name of a member of Congress involved in the VIP program will head straight to the ethics committee, while redacted copies of those documents will be given to the House Oversight and Government Reform. But the committee has cast a much wider net, looking into whether lobbyists or others in Washington helped identify mid-level Hill...

Lobbyists and government watchdogs are applauding revisions made by the White House on Friday to lobbying restrictions on stimulus funds. After completing a 60-day review last week, the administration modified the rules to extend a speaking ban not just to lobbyists but to others who contact government officials about specific stimulus projects. But that ban only occurs now after a grant application has been filed for the project. Those interested in the project have to file their views in writing with administration officials, which will then be disclosed on the Internet. All contacts with lobbyists will still have to be...

Washington’s influence industry is humming steadily while the national economy is declining in what several economists predict will be the worst recession in 50 years. More than half a million Americans lost jobs last month, and the value of most 401(k) plans plunged, yet government and public-relations pros in town expect to make a lot of money over the next two years. Fueling the industry along K Street is an anticipation of sweeping changes that President-elect Obama and the newly emboldened Democratic Congress will pursue together — from ending Bush-administration tax cuts to enacting the broad health reforms proposed during...

Three major trade associations announced a changeover in leadership Friday as Washington prepares for a new administration and a Congress with extended Democratic majorities in both houses. Frank Bowman resigned as president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Bowman was selected as the leader of NEI in August 2004. “After much deliberation about the right course of leadership for our industry and the Nuclear Energy Institute during this period of dramatic change in Congress and the White House, I am resigning as president and chief executive officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute,” Bowman wrote in his resignation...

Hillary's Mystery Money MenRuss Baker & Adam Federman Thu Oct 18, 2:04 PM ET The Nation -- In the Clintons' pursuit of power, there is no such thing as a strange bedfellow. One recently exposed inamorata was Norman Hsu, the mysterious businessman from Hong Kong who brought in $850,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign before being unmasked as a fugitive. Her campaign dismissed Hsu as someone who'd slipped through the cracks of an otherwise unimpeachable system for vetting donors, and perhaps he was. The same cannot be said for the notorious financier Alan Quasha, whose involvement with Clinton is at least...