Catastrophe - Dick Morris [99]
There are now 15,150 registered lobbyists in Washington. D.C. Among them, they were paid $3.24 billion in 2008.342 They’re a fast-growing population. But we have no idea exactly how many stealth lobbyists are out there or exactly how much they were paid. All we know is that they’re out there doing their quiet and influential work and getting paid well—quite well—for their time.
That stealth technology really works!
Take a look at a few of our former congressional leaders:
TOM DASCHLE: STEALTH LOBBYIST PAR EXCELLENCE
Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle is the quintessential stealth lobbyist. After his defeat in 2004, he joined the powerful Washington law firm and lobbying organization, Alston & Bird.
Daschle claims he’s not a lobbyist. In fact, he’s stated publicly that lobbying is “beneath” him.243 The thing is, he’s not a lawyer, either. So what’s he doing working at a firm that only does lobbying and legal representation?
Take a guess.
He’s a special adviser to Alston & Bird’s public policy group. He was lured to the firm, in part, by another former Senate majority leader, Bob Dole, who sought him out after he lost his Senate seat. These former majority leaders sure stick together.
At the time, Dole apparently envisioned a hands-on lobbying role just like his own for Daschle. Because when Daschle joined the lobbying firm in 2005, Dole told the Washington Post: “He’s got a lot of friends in the Senate, and I’ve got a lot of friends in the Senate, and, combined, who knows—we might have 51,” Dole joked. “It’s going to work fine. You need some flexibility and diversity. I don’t think any successful firm is all Democrat or all Republican.”344
Dole was obviously referring to the likelihood that the well-connected new bipartisan duo would be lobbying together to round up the fifty-one votes that would be needed to pass or kill a client’s bill, amendment, or earmark. That’s called lobbying. What else would he be expecting Daschle to do?
As another former Senate majority leader turned lobbyist, Trent Lott, explained it, “You can’t be advising people on how to deal with Congress without, in effect, at least indirectly influencing Congress.”345
And that’s what Daschle does. He helps clients figure out the best way to influence Congress, directly or indirectly. There’s a word for that: lobbying.
As the Washington Post observed about the former senator’s new role: “Daschle is merely the latest high-profile former lawmaker to jump to the lucrative world of lobbying and law firm work in what has become an increasing trend.”346
It seems as if everyone knew that Daschle was a lobbyist—except Daschle himself.
Oh, and one other important official: Barack Obama.
Obama had promised that he would neither appoint former lobbyists nor permit political appointees to work on contracts or regulations that related to their previous employment. Yet as soon as he became president-elect, Obama made Tom Daschle his first cabinet appointment, tapping him to be secretary of health and human services. Apparently all Daschle had to do was label himself an “adviser” and deny he was a “lobbyist,” and that was enough to convince Obama.
But even Daschle couldn’t sincerely claim there would be no conflict of interest because of the breadth of his former clients and the firm’s and his own affiliations that relate to health care. First of all, Daschle had been a board member of the Mayo Clinic, an organization with major financial and programmatic interests in federal health care policy. Second, and more important, Daschle’s employer, Alston + Bird, received more than $4.7 million in lobbying fees in 2008 from health care interests, including drug companies, nursing homes, nurses, clinical laboratories, and insurance companies. Finally, Daschle had been paid big bucks for speeches paid by health giants such as UnitedHealth Group.
Why didn’t anyone on Obama’s team raise a concern about Daschle’s work for Alston & Bird? His status within the firm was no secret. His role as an important part of its “health