Chyron Of The Day: MSNBC Claims Former Sen. Larry Craig ‘Lobbying Against Wolves’
On MSNBC Live Tuesday afternoon, Contessa Brewer interviewed National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett about the ways in which former members of Congress skirt lobbying rules. The jumping-off point was former Sen. Chris Dodd‘s recent hiring by the MPAA, and while the segment was insightful and informative, the highlight was the revelation that disgraced former Sen. Larry Craig, according to MSNBC’s chyron, “Lobbying Against Wolves.” Somebody call Kevin Costner, I smell a sequel!
Former Sen. Larry Craig, who famously promised to resign-then didn’t-his Senate seat over a sex scandal, is given as an example of a former legislator who picked up the lobbying baton pretty much right at that two year mark, lobbying for a bill that would remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list. Is Craig in the pocket of “Big Sheep’s Clothing?”
No, he’s working for Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, a group with the “don’t do me any favors” mission of “Improving wildlife habitat & hunting opportunity.” While “lobbying against wolves” is one way of putting it, the group is really lobbying for the trophy animals that the wolves kill for food. So that they can be killed by the “sportsmen” instead.
The report itself is a very insightful look at the way members of Congress, like Dodd, can essentially subvert the rule that forbids them from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after leaving the House or Senate. As Garrett points out, a group like the MPAA can reap the benefits of Dodd’s contacts and influence, just as long as he’s not a registered lobbyist, and doesn’t make the calls himself. Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, the inside game finds a way.
Here’s video of the segment, from MSNBC:
The article that Garrett and Brewer were discussing is available to National Journal subscribers only, but here’s Garrett’s concluding paragraph, which perfectly sums up the effects (insidious and otherwise) of lobbying on our politics:
…voters drive the makeup of Congress, which drives the policy agenda.
But hundreds upon hundreds of smaller deals are cut beneath those currents. And that’s where lobbyists and former lawmakers carve out clout and redirect (or kill) policy ideas. The American Beverage Association, for example, boosted lobbying expenditures by 3,785 percent—from $140,000 one year to $5.4 million the next—during the health care debate to successfully kill a proposed tax on sugary soft drinks. Lobbyists, by drafting the help of former lawmakers, can save their industry clients millions or billions of dollars and, in the manner of Patton Boggs ($70 million in revenue in 2009-10), pocket a hefty profit along the way. As Dorgan and Bennett have shown, nothing could be more bipartisan.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
