Is Cantor Technically A Lobbyist Yet?

Since first being elected to Congress in 2000, Eric Cantor has raised $32,386,930 and spent $30,889,639 on his reelection bids-- and on building power for himself inside the GOP caucus. He spent $5,794,611 in the current cycle, significantly more than the $392,316 his primary opponent no one had ever heard of spent. Eric Cantor, on the night he lost his primary election to Dave Brat addressed his supporters at what everyone assumed would be a victory party: "I believe in this country," he declared. "I believe there's opportunity around the next former… for all of us." He basically wanted nothing more to do with his constituents in the Richmond suburbs. As far as he was concerned the Republicans of Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield, Spotsylvania and Culpeper counties could take their job and shove it. He announced he would be resigning on August 18 and they would have no Representative in Congress at all. Take that, ingrates!

Today was Cantor's first day at work as vice chairman and managing director of international banksters, Moelis & Co. Because of legal technicalities, he won't be called a "lobbyist" per se for a couple of years, just the guy who gives "strategic advice." He once worked as a real estate developer in his father's company but I have a feeling that private sector experience isn't why Moelis is paying him over $3 million this year-- a $400,000 base salary, $1.4 million as a guaranteed bonus and this year, a special incentive of $1.6 million. How cool is that? Wall Street owes Cantor-- despite the Financial sector having paid him $8,940,890 since he was first elected, more than to any other Member of the House other than John Boehner ($10,463,339). The closest any Democrat has come to getting that kind of love from Wall Street was Charlie Rangel ($5,501,943) and he was kicked out of his committee chair for the kind of unethical behavior that made Cantor a Republican hero. But, more than anyone else in Congress, Cantor carried Wall Street's water. There was never a single instance in which the interests of consumers, average investors or the general public ever came before the interests of the managerial class of the Wall Street banks. Welcome home, Eric!

This is as good as what the banksters did for Rahm Emanuel when he took a few months off from government work to make himself into a multimillionaire. And, look-- Cantor's contract specifically permits him to leave Moelis after just 24 months without any monetary penalties if he leaves to "take a full-time elected or appointed position in federal government, state government, or a national party." Sweet!

Two of the sleaziest and most self-serving wheeler-dealers to have darkened the halls of Congress in modern times were ultra-conservative New Dem John Breaux (LA) and racist/neo-fascist Republican Trent Lott (MS). Theoretically, the Senate became a better place when the two of them retired. But not really. Both put their connections and friendships up on the market to the highest bidder and the two scumbags are among Washington's shadiest lobbyists, working for Washington's most corrupt firm, Patton Boggs. A Russian bank, widely viewed as a criminal operation for Putin and his inner circle, Gazprombank, just hired the two of them to help them circumvent sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Last cycle Paton Boggs and its lobbyists handed out just over $2,000,000 in vaguely legalistic bribes to Members of Congress, including $155,220 to Steve Israel's DCCC and $115,800 to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's DNC, $74,156 to the RNC, $42,500 to the NRCC and $36,750 to the NRSC. They're big players. And so far this cycle, they've put another $733,496 into legalistic bribes to Members of Congress. Over 10K pops have already gone out to slimy conservatives like Mark Warner (D-$18,000), Susan Collins (R-$12,750), Mark Pryor (D-$11,500) and Paul Ryan (R-$10,750).

Lott resigned from the Senate after he was taped making the kinds of vile racist comments Republicans aren't supposed to say publicly. He resigned early so he could get finished with the 1 year grace period before senators were then allowed to officially be able to become lobbyists. It was due to kick up to 2 years in 2008. So he tendered his resignation on December 18, 2007 and 3 weeks later, on January 7, 2006, he and Breaux, who had retired from the Senate in 2005 and was working as an influence peddler for Patton Boggs already, opened the the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group one block from the white House. 2 years later their firm was bought out by Patton Boggs. By the way, there are over 300 former Members of Congress currently serving as influence peddlers in DC lobbying firms. There ought to be a law… No, I mean a real one.

There IS a dime's worth of difference between Dems and Rs. It's just that that's an AVERAGE. Sometimes it's a quarter, others barely a penny

Sweeties Cokie and Stevie--it's all in the family.

"For professional legislators like Lott, the toxic partisanship poisoning the capital today makes their job very difficult and dispiriting. Ideologues in both parties savage anyone who even hints at working with the rival camp. As Republican Sen. John Thune, Lott’s deputy, explained: 'He’s just sort of reached the end of the line in terms of what he can do here.'"
--America's Sweethearts, Cokie and Stevie Roberts, in their syndicated column today, "Lott's career shaped by willingness to compromise"

Poor Cokie Roberts is really taking it on the chin for this quote, which as far as I can tell appears only in this column written jointly with her sweetie Steve--or, as they're known professionally, "Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts."

Now if that's all America's Sweeties had to say about our Trent, they would be fair game for the ridicule that's been heaped on them, er, her. In fact, it's a highly professional, thoughtful, and balanced column, which says much worse things about the Trentman than most of the ridiculers probably knew, but also gives him his due. And one thing you did hear from Senate insiders when he gave way as Senate majority leader to America's Lifesaver, Doctorbill Frist, is that Trent, unlike Doctorbill, actually believed in getting things done, meaning that he understood the art of political compromise.

Contrary to what the ridiculers would have you believe, the Sweeties' column is actually quite solid; I encourage you to read it. True, it might have been nice if they'd qualified the huzzahs to our Trent's pragmatism with some recognition that his range of compromise narrowed considerably once the cabal of Cheney, Rove, and Bush was installed in the White House. But then, you can't have everything.

The Sweeties do note:

Lott is leaving for many reasons. At age 66, he knows that he has only a few years left to make money in the private sector. His sudden decision to quit, with four years left on his term, seems partly motivated by new ethics rules that make it harder for ex-lawmakers to lobby their former colleagues.

As a matter of fact, already last Wednesday Paul Kane posted this report on his washingtonpost.com blog, "Capitol Briefing":

Lott Courted By Senator-turned-lobbyist

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is a wanted man out on K Street, as he has many lobbying shops seeking to transform Lott into the first modern-era senator to quit midterm to shill for corporate clients.

And the man with the inside track to land Lott appears to be his old friend, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) [left]. Breaux told Capitol Briefing in an interview today that he is planning a full-court press to bring Lott into his new lobbying shop once Lott retires next month. At that point Lott is officially allowed, under Senate ethics rules, to enter into serious contract talks with lobbying firms.

"I told him I wanted to be one of the first people to talk to him once he officially retires," Breaux said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview while he drove around his hometown of New Orleans. "I'd love to have him as part of my small group." . . .


Breaux announced today that he is leaving Patton Boggs, the lobbying firm where his old Cajun friend Tommy Boggs is in charge. Breaux and his son, John Breaux Jr., are forming their own lobby shop. He said he wanted to start such a firm with his son when he retired three years ago, but wasn't sure he knew enough about the private sector.

With his three-year contract at Patton Boggs expiring next month, Breaux is jumping ship and hopes his old friend Lott will join him. Back in 2004, as he prepared for retirement and after Lott had been ousted from GOP leadership, Breaux jokingly (and seriously) tried to coax Lott into starting a firm together then.

"I kept telling him he ought to retire," Breaux said.

Of course Senator Breaux was never what you would call DWT's kind of Democrat. Kane lays out some of the political and personal ties between him and our Trent:

The two started out as aides to House Democrats in the 1960s, and then got elected to the House in their own right in the 1970s. Once they joined the Senate in the 1980s, Lott and Breaux served on the Finance and Commerce committees together. In addition to their mutual southern charm, they both created legislative personas as go-to senators when it was time to cut a deal - which earned them some distrust on the left and right flanks of their caucuses.

But beyond the political ties, they share personal bonds no other lobbying firm or corporate association can match. Breaux and Lott raised their families across the street from each other in Annandale, Va. Lott's wife, Tricia, is the godmother to Breaux's youngest daughter. Their sons served as grooms in each other's weddings.

In fact, Breaux's vision has a family glow: himself and his old pal Trent lobbying together alongside their sons. (Young Chester Trent is currently a-lobbyin' his soul away in Kentucky.) You know, all in the family.

Speaking of sons, the aforementioned Tommy Boggs--of the aforementioned Patton Boggs lobbying firm--is more properly known as Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. (right), the son of onetime Democratic House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and former Rep. Lindy Boggs, who represented their Louisiana district for 18 years after her husband was presumed killed in an airplane crash.

Which makes Tommy the brother of none other than Sweetie Cokie, er, Cokie Boggs Roberts. Like we said, it's all in the family.

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