Catastrophe - Dick Morris [100]
Our health care legislative and policy team has the significant advantage of including two former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders—Senators Bob Dole and Tom Daschle—both resident in our Washington office and champions of many health care issues in their Senate Finance Committee and leadership roles. We have authoritative knowledge of the legislative and administrative policies and processes, and we work with the key decision-makers who impact health care providers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and trade associations. We are dedicated policy professionals with proven success.347
Did the Obama folks really think there’d be no conflict of interest when Daschle’s employer, Alston & Bird—and maybe Daschle himself—represented every possible aspect of health care? The firm’s health care clients included:
Nursing home coalitions that receive reimbursements from HHS and that depend on Medicare rates set by the agency
Pharmacies that also receive federal reimbursements on prescription drugs
Insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, and nurses, who will be seriously affected by the massive health care reform touted by Obama
It’s a manifestation of Obama’s hypocrisy that he actually nominated Daschle and planned to elevate him to be the White House health czar—with an unprecedented office in the White House as well as at HHS. Why? Because, given Alston & Bird’s portfolio of clients, it’s hard to imagine that Daschle didn’t spend most of his time there working on health care issues.
As the list of Alston & Bird’s lobbying clients below indicates, $4.75 million—60 percent—of the firm’s roughly $8 million in lobbying fees in 2008 were paid by clients with health care interests.
Even by Washington standards, that’s enormous. And, trust us, those folks weren’t looking for an “adviser” to give a PowerPoint presentation on how the committee system works, or to tell them who the key players are in the Senate, or to give some general lecture on health care reform. They were looking for success and influence. That’s why they went to Alston & Bird in the first place.
And Alston & Bird very much understands what its clients want. The firm is proud of the fact that it counts such former congressional leaders among its members, publicly promoting their experience in Congress. Here’s another candid description of their work on the firm’s Web site:
Distinguished attorneys and advisors with lifetimes of experience in how Washington works are the core of the Legislative and Public Policy Group, an esteemed collection of experts in the field which includes two former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders: Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) and Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD)…. Senator Dole, the 1996 Republican candidate for president and former Senate Majority Leader who…has an enormous reservoir of knowledge and expertise—based on more than forty years at the pinnacle of political life in Washington—that has proven to be invaluable to Alston & Bird’s clients…
Senator Daschle brings extensive knowledge of public policy, trade and international issues. He also has keen insight into the areas of energy, financial services, telecommunications, health care and taxation.
Senator Tom Daschle is a Special Public Policy Advisor in Alston & Bird’s Washington, D.C. office, and is a member of the Legislative and Public Policy Group. As a non-attorney, Senator Daschle focuses his services on advising the firm’s clients on issues related to all aspects of public policy with a particular emphasis on issues related to financial services, health care, energy, telecommunications and taxes….
With more than 25 years of service in the House of Representatives and the Senate and 10 years as Senate Democratic Leader, Senator Daschle has played an instrumental role in the development of U.S. legislative and regulatory policy.348
If Daschle isn’t a lobbyist, why would Alston & Bird promote his position in the firm’s “legislative practice” so aggressively?