Anatomy Of A Sleazy K Street Lobbyist: Meet Ex-Congressman Walt Minnick (D-ID)... Again

Oops... too late!

Minnick, defeated in 2010 in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse, promptly started a Big Business-oriented lobbying firm on K Street, the Majority Group. He says he has to be able to look himself in the mirror when he shaves in the morning-- so he'll only take clients whose message he believes in. Uh oh.

Minnick, the only Democratic incumbent in the House to be officially endorsed by the Tea Party and the only Democrat in the House to receive a perfect score from the Club for Growth, was one of the most right-wing Democrats in Congress. He was almost always a sure bet-- on the crucial issues-- who Boehner could count on. Who voted against President Obama's stimulus, against the Clean Energy Act, and, of course, against health care reform. Worse yet, he was a force for evil inside the Democratic caucus and on both the House Financial Services Committee and the Agriculture Committee, two of the 3 most corrupt committees in Congress. His role on Financial Services was to consistently help water down any and all reforms the Democrats sought to achieve to protect consumers from Wall Street predators.

The “highest-profile vote” Minnick heard from leadership on was the Affordable Care Act. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) confronted Minnick on the House floor and asked what it would take to get him to vote for the bill.

“[Pelosi] wouldn’t have had that conversation with me if I were lockstep from the beginning, and she wouldn’t have thought seriously about the things I needed to have changed in the bill if ... she didn’t need the votes,” Minnick said.

Minnick ultimately voted against the healthcare act. He also voted against the economic stimulus package of 2009, a vote he said he “might have changed,” looking back.

After one miserable term in Congress, Democrats and left-leaning independents abandoned him and he was defeated by a joke of a teabagger, Raul Labrador 126,231 (51.0%) to 102,135 (41.3%). Two years earlier, when he was elected, defeating incumbent Bill Sali, he had drawn 175,898 votes (51%) against Sali's 171,687 (49%). Almost 70 thousand of his voters decided to stay home. It wasn't because he was too liberal. In 2008 Minnick won the biggest county in the district, Ada, with 52% and held Sali down to a 10 point win in the second biggest, ultra-red Canyon, and a 2 point lead in the third biggie, Kootenai (51-49%). With Democratic voters dismayed that they had elected another conservative Big Business shill, and staying home, Minnick lost Ada 53-41%, got wiped out in Canyon with just 36% and in Kootenai with 40%. In fact, of the first district's 19 counties, Winnick only managed to win in tiny Latah, Valley, Shoshone and Nez Perce.

So when Minnick says he's only going to take clients he believes in, you can guess what that means. One of his partners is fellow right-wing Blue Dog-- also defeated in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse-- Rob Ellsworth of Indiana. Believe me, these two aren't going to be lobbying for anything that does society any good. Most of their clients are financial predators seeking to hold back reforms that protect consumers-- iServe Residential Lending LLC, PEF Services, LLC, Supreme Lending, Property Liquidators, LLC, and FCI Lender Services, Inc., although they also specialize in AgriBusiness-related special interests like the National Potato Council and Agri Beef Co.

The Majority Group has been tightly connected to the Blue Dog caucus and "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel uses them as an adjunct of the DCCC. They're part of the nexus of corruption that has turned Washington into a cesspool and has seen to it that the Democratic Party is on par with the GOP when it comes to the Culture of Corruption so hated by Americans and so beloved of our political elites.

This year former Washington Redskins wide receiver Jimmy Farris, age 33, is running for Minnick's old seat.