DO CORPORATE LOBBYISTS REALLY HAVE MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT FROM A DEMOCRATIC SWEEP NEXT YEAR?

Yesterday, while Ohio Governor Ted Strickland was barnstorming in northwest Ohio with progressive Democrat Robin Weirauch, I mentioned that Big Business was pouring obscene amounts of money into arch reactionary Bob Latta's campaign. Corporate interests are desperate to hold onto the seat and--with a DCCC still under the thumb of corporatist NAFTA-ethusiast Rahm Emanuel-- they just may get their way. This despite the fact that not only did the very moderate Democrat Strickland win OH-05 last year, but so did the far more progressive (now Senator) Sherrod Brown.

Today's NY Times reports on how the corporate lobbyists "nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor." And although it is true beyond dispute that the Bush Regime has given corporate America a wide latitude to write its own legislation and to feed at the public trough in ways that haven't been seen since the worst of the 1920's, Corporate America is well aware it has nothing to fear from a Clinton to Regime or a Congress controlled by tools and hacks like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer.

Around the edges, Democrats will be far fairer to consumers and workers and far more cognizant of environmental concerns, but when it comes to knowing where their bread in buttered-- and from whence their power emanates-- corporatists like Emanuel and Hoyer are essentially in the pocket of Big Business... in more ways than one.

Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements.

...Even as they try to shape pending regulations, business lobbies are also looking beyond President Bush. Corporations and trade associations are recruiting Democratic lobbyists. And lobbyists, expecting battles over taxes and health care in 2009, are pouring money into the campaigns of Democratic candidates for Congress and the White House.

Corporate greed and avarice is so boundless that even a whisper of fair play or gentle push in the direction of balance sends corporate lobbyists and their bosses into a panic. "Business groups generally argue that federal regulations are onerous and needlessly add costs that are passed on to consumers, while their opponents accuse them of trying to whittle down regulations that are vital to safety and quality of life. Documents on file at several agencies show that business groups have stepped up lobbying in recent months, as they try to help the Bush administration finish work on rules that have been hotly debated and, in some cases, litigated for years."

At the Interior Department, coal companies are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys. It would be prohibitively expensive to haul away the material, they say, and there are no waste sites in the area. Luke Popovich, a vice president of the National Mining Association, said that a Democratic president was more likely to side with “the greens.”

A coalition of environmental groups has condemned the proposed rule, saying it would accelerate “the destruction of mountains, forests and streams throughout Appalachia.”

And even if a Democratic president really wants to overturn Bush's last few months-- let alone his entire onerous 8 years-- (and that is very debatable), the Supreme Court, particularly this bastion of reaction Bush is leaving us, must be contended with. And anyone hopeful that already corporately-oriented Democrats like Clinton and the current House leaders will do much to anything approaching revolutionary-- the way Bush did when the far right gained power in 2000-- need only look at the activities going on up and down K Street these days. Emanuel and Hoyer have the joint as wired as DeLay and Santorum ever did.

Two executive recruiters, Ivan H. Adler of the McCormick Group and Nels B. Olson of Korn/Ferry International, said they had seen a growing demand for Democratic lobbyists. “It’s a bull market for Democrats, especially those who have worked for the Congressional leadership” or a powerful committee, Mr. Adler said.

Few industries have more cause for concern than drug companies, which have been a favorite target of Democrats. Republicans run the Washington offices of most major drug companies, and a former Republican House member, Billy Tauzin, is president of their trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

The association has hired three Democrats this year, so its lobbying team is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

Loren B. Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a policy research organization, said: “Defense contractors have not only begun to prepare for the next administration. They have begun to shape it. They’ve met with Hillary Clinton and other candidates.”

Will that make you sleep better?