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• Wednesday, December 3, 2008 11:06 AM

  A few names to add to the collection

  Reps. Mary Bono (R-Calif.), Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) are widows appointed to finish their spouses terms

  Rep. Nancy Pelosi is the daughter of former Baltimore mayor Thomas D'Alessandro Jr. and the sister of former Baltimore mayor Thomas D'Alessandro III

  Jerry Brown, former governor of California, is the son of the late governor, Pat Brown.

  Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), is the wife John R. McKernan Jr. who was Maine governor.

  Senator Chris Dodd is the son of the late Senator Thomas Dodd

  Senator Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) is the son of a senator

  Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is the son of a senator.

  Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV's uncle was Vice President Nelson Rockefeller

  Oddly, there is not much information to be found about the nepotism in Congress and its relation to Lobbying. If there is fault or collusion to be found in political nepotism this is where it will lie. Harry Reid has relatives that made over $2 million lobbying Congress. Tom DeLay while active, had family members that probably made even more.

  I found the following article by Dick Morris of all people, but it sums up the problem nicely:

  “When his dad became Speaker of the House, Joshua Hastert, son of Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), moved to Washington, closed his record store back home and joined a lobbying firm. He found latent skills at lobbying members like his dad that he never knew he had. Google, recognizing these mythical abilities, hired him as their lobbyist. The Democrats went crazy criticizing abuses like these.

  Now that Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.) is the Democratic floor leader, he has not just one but three sons — and a son-in-law — who are lobbyists. One of Reid's sons, and his son-in-law, has lobbied in Washington; a second son lobbies for the same interests in Nevada; and a third son is an attorney who litigates for them in court. Reid's lobbyist-sons worked to promote federal land swaps, mining interests and the University of Nevada at Reno.

  Not to be outdone, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt's (R-Mo.) wife, Abigail Perlman, is director of federal government affairs for Altria — the former Philip Morris corporation. Their relationship is one that was hatched in lobbying. While Blunt was dating Abigail, he quietly drafted language to benefit Altria/Philip Morris and tried to sneak it in the bill that established the Department of Homeland Security — without alerting the Republican leadership. Blunt's mission was to minimize the sale of cigarettes on the Internet, a thorn in the side of Altria/Philip Morris. Fortunately, Hastert killed the amendment.

  Of the 100 senators, the sons, daughters, husbands or wives of 20 of them are registered as lobbyists, whose job often boils down to lobbying Mom or Dad. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is typical of the conflicts that can arise in such a situation. His son Scott Hatch lobbied for the makers of ephedra while his father sponsored legislation to exempt the diet supplement from federal regulation. Scott got paid $2 million in lobbying fees, while Dad got more than $137,000 from the diet supplement industry.”http://tinyurl.com/6xkemx

  So a full fifth of the Senate have relatives that lobby. I cannot find information about the House, the Supreme Court, or the White House, but I suspect influence peddling will be there somewhere on a scale we will be ashamed to find. It will be most interesting to see what impact a President Obama will have on this, his opposition to lobbying is well known.

  If there is an upside to the coming economic downturn, it would be really nice to see lobbyists in the unemployment lines for a change. Perhaps the public will get a long awaited break after all.

  —Jim Montague Read Jim Montague's other letters
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