Free Republic

House Republicans are preparing a continuing resolution to keep the government open. In doing so, they’ve decided to be total sluts for K Street and Wall Street. The Crony Capitalists, emboldened by the Chamber of Commerce’s help during primary season, are doing some very unusual things. Here’s what I hear is happening. First, they will reauthorize the Ex-Im bank, which is something K Street is desperate to see happen. Second, current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti Murray deal that had included a tax hike. However, that is subject to change. Third,...

Wonder of wonders: The Washington press corps woke up. Finally, mainstream journalists are onto Barack Obama's game. Their breaking-news shocker? Turns out all that "hope and change" stuff was just hot air. A new report from the D.C.-based press shows that -- gasp -- the White House is infested with Beltway lobbyists. Good morning, sleepyheads! According to Politico's analysis published on Monday, the "Obama administration has hired about 70 previously registered corporate, trade association and for-hire lobbyists. And many of these former lobbyists work at the highest levels of government." Wait, there's more. The "most transparent administration ever" is playing...

Eric Cantor just announced that he is quitting his House seat on August 18. The remainder of his term is likely to be filled by a special election held on the same day as the election for the next term. It’s almost certain that Dave Brat, the Republican firebrand who beat Cantor in the primary, will win both and take office immediately after November 4. Why did Cantor quit? There are three reasons, and Larry Sabato notwithstanding, “generosity” to his successor isn’t one of them. 1) He’s given up on the lame duck session. The last week of this legislative...

Pick a job, any job. Outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s career in Congress might be over, but he’s got plenty of suitors on Wall Street and in the National Republican Committee. Cantor was recently spotted at an exclusive Hamptons party, rubbing elbows with Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfien and billionaire investor Carl Icahn, according to Politico, and seemed to be pining for a finance job in New York. The seven-term congressman from Virginia lost his primary last month to Tea Party favorite Dave Brat. Cantor will step down from his leadership role at the end of July, but will...

Brendan Buck, press secretary for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), on Monday was named vice president of communications for America’s Health Insurance Plans. “Brendan’s experience and skill set will allow him to hit the ground running on Day One,” AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni said. “He’s an effective communicator who knows how to tackle complex policy issues and skillfully navigate an ever-changing health care and media environment.”

K Street is coming out for Hillary Clinton. Nearly 20 consultants and lobbyists are co-hosting a Ready for Hillary PAC fundraiser Thursday night at Capitol Hill restaurant Johnny’s Half Shell. Hosts and attendees are expected to contribute $2,500 and $1,000, respectively. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is the “special guest” for the event. Many of the co-hosts for the event played prominent roles in the Bill Clinton administrations or have strong Democratic ties on Capitol Hill. David Jones, finance committee member of Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, now at Capitol Counsel, along with veteran Clinton administration loyalists like Harold Ickes and Janice...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $50 million on lobbying last year as it pushed for action on immigration reform. Typically the biggest K Street spender in Washington, the business group funneled about $52.7 million toward lobbying efforts in 2013, according to disclosure records. In the last quarter of the year, the group spent almost $16.5 million. Some of that money went toward lobbying on immigration reform, which is a top legislative priority for the business community. The Chamber played an instrumental role in getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the Senate last year by helping the...

Retiring lawmakers are likely to find a tough job market next year on K Street. Several lawmakers — many of them veterans with centrist bonafides — plan to retire after the 2014 election, making them prime recruits for lobby firms, trade groups and corporate boards. While corporate headhunters see a future on K Street for many of the retiring lawmakers, they warn that sluggish lobbying revenues and gridlock on Capitol Hill are depressing demand. “With revenues down, it's not going to be as fruitful. It will slowly pick up but we are still in a slump when it comes to...

Politicians like to say they hate lobbyists. This is false. They love lobbyists and they love being lobbied. What politicians hate is being lobbied in public, in earshot of their constituents.Keeping disagreements and policy debates behind the closed doors of Capitol Hill and K Street animates Democrats' fight for campaign finance restrictions. But it also lies at the heart of the Republican leadership's war with Tea Party groups.Take Byron Dorgan, the former Democratic senator. In his 2006 book he complained of “legions of lobbyists” bringing “barrels of political donations.” Dorgan's wife, Kimberly, has since 1999 been a lobbyist for the...

I stepped out last night, away from politics, to be the celebrity chef at a cooking school. It was refreshing to tune out the political world. But when I checked into my hotel after eleven last night, there was a backlog of weepy, crying emails from people ready to surrender. Why? Because the GOP has gone from being not liked to being not liked? Because this Congress has gone from being the worst ever to the worst ever? Surrender should not be an option. This fight has been and remains about Obamacare. A Republican Party fretting over polling should consider...

How did the Republican Party become so splintered and so infused with hard-line conservatives? Don't blame redistricting. Don't chalk it up to anti-Obama fervor.Republicans have become an unruly bunch of scorched-earth conservatives because the Tea Party smashed the business lobby's monopoly on GOP fundraising.Here's a story of where the GOP used to be:Back in 2006, I asked a couple of conservative Republican congressmen to give blurbs for my book on corporate welfare. “My boss loves the book,” one of their top aides said, “but we’re not going to put his name on it." Why not, I asked. "Who do you...

There are no indispensable men, but go to Washington and everyone treats everyone else as indispensable. Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have been in the United States Congress since 1985. In that time the national debt has grown from $1,823,103,000,000.00 to $16,066,241,407,385.89. In that time the GOP went from being the part of small government to the party of slightly smaller than the Democrats. No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, TARP, the General Motors bailout, and so much more happened on their watch. But they remain and voters who vote party and not person keep supporting them. But they...

Congressman-turned-lobbyist Steve LaTourette, speaking for moderate Republicans, has attacked the free-market and the stridently anti-establishment Club for Growth as "a cancer on the Republican Party."It's K Street versus the Tea Party again in the bitter civil war within the Republican Party.The Club for Growth came up as the scourge of liberal Republicans. In 2000, the group got behind conservative state legislator Scott Garrett, who was challenging liberal Republican Marge Roukema for the second time in a northern New Jersey district.Roukema edged out Garrett in the primary, but the threat of another primary challenge, backed by a more powerful Club for...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is defending his participation in the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill efforts, saying he knows it won’t win him any “parades” among conservatives, but it’s necessary. Speaking Wednesday night with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Rubio said he understands why conservatives are skeptical of immigration reform. “Look, it’s obvious I didn’t do this for political gain. This is not something that’s going to gain me any parades. People are frustrated, and I do understand it. What I hope they understand is that I studied this issue carefully for almost two years and I concluded that what we...

A few years ago, I wrote a book, "Jesus Wept" an American Story. The story, in part, was about Cherokee Chief John Ross, a 1/8th Cherokee blood, white, blue eyed greedy tyrant. The more time goes on, the more he reminds me of Barak Obama. He was put in power by Major Ridge and some other realistic Cherokees, who thought the tribe, which functioned under a constitutional government, would fare better in Washington DC if represented by Ross who would be identified more with the white leaders. And for a time, that seemed to work. Until Ross got the taste...

I’m getting sick of the rewriting of 2008 presidential campaign history as K Street Republicans continue to assault Sarah Palin in the fear that a similarly conservative Republican will rise to the top of the VP sweepstakes.   It has been so fashionable in D.C. Republican circles to bash the Palin nomination as a mistake, ill-conceived or even disastrous, that even Dick Chaney has gotten into the act.   These self-serving attempts to change history are nothing more than a smear campaign designed to influence the Romney VP pick by obscuring the truth that the choice of Sarah Palin to...

Homeland Security: President Obama promised lobbyists wouldn't run his White House. They're just doing it from across the street — at a Shariah-compliant coffee chain tied to a radical jihadist group. That's right: According to the New York Times, prominent K Street lobbyists are buttonholing Obama officials at a Caribou Coffee shop on Pennsylvania Avenue, raising far more than just ethics questions. What the Times story neglects to mention is that Caribou Coffee is a Shariah-compliant firm owned by an Islamic bank based in Bahrain. One of its founders and a current adviser are leaders in the radical Muslim Brotherhood....

"If you want to get involved in business," Sen. Orrin Hatch warned technology companies at a conference in 2000, "you should get involved in politics." Hatch was referring to the shortcomings of then-software king Microsoft, which he had spent most of the previous decade harassing from his perch as Judiciary Committee chairman. The message was clear: If you become successful, you must hire lobbyists, you must start a political action committee, and you must donate to politicians. Otherwise Washington will make your life very difficult.

Big business and the Tea Party are at swords' points once again, with GOP Senate primaries for the second straight election becoming proxy battles in the war over the soul of the Republican Party. Conservative insurgents pose serious threats this year to establishment Republicans in at least three open-seat Senate races. In every case, political action committees and lobbyists have hugely favored the establishment pick with contributions. One reason: The GOP establishment rallies industry donors behind the Republican seen as stronger in November. A deeper reason: The revolving-door clique of K Street and Capitol Hill operatives needs Republicans elected to...

The lobbying industry’s favorite senator has turned Big Bank protections into a flood of campaign cash. Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) received nearly $300,000 from lobbyists in 2012, making him the top recipient of K Street dollars, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Tester has denied the fact on multiple occasions, saying it is “not true.” But a Washington Free Beacon review of campaign contributions reveals that Tester leads all Senators in lobbying cash. He is also flush in contributions from Wall Street firms and big banks, ranking second in the Senate for commercial bank donations, third for credit...