Generals turned fatcat lobbyists

About three-quarters of all retired three- and four-star generals in recent years have gone into the defense business, natty Bryan Bender of the Boston Globe reports in a terrific bunch of articles.

I'd always known this double-dipping was bad, but I didn't realize how bad. "The revolving-door culture of Capitol Hill -- where former lawmakers and staffers commonly market their insider knowledge to lobbying firms -- is now pervasive at the senior rungs of the military leadership," he concludes. Some of them serve on Pentagon advisory panels without even disclosing to fellow panel members that they are paid to advocate certain weapons programs. That stinks.

I wonder what George Marshall, who went to work for the Red Cross when he retired, and then was recalled to government service, would think of these people. Not much, I bet.

Not nauseous yet? How about this: Your tax dollars are used to teach them how to get on the gravy train. "Since the early 1990s, the Navy and Air Force have been sending retiring senior officers -- in some cases a full two years before they leave the military -- to taxpayer-funded career seminars on Coronado Island near San Diego. They are taught how to write a resume and to network in private industry."

Here is a summary of other takes on it.

A Best Defense salute to those, like Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who became professors or went into other non-lucrative endeavors, or who simply retired to live on their full salaried pensions and offer their expertise for free as needed. I mean, one reason for the pension is the sense that you can be recalled to active duty. If someone's counsel is really needed, why not activate him for six months and make him a special assistant?

Meanwhile, there is a controversy over whether Northrop Grumman should bill the government for sending Navy officials to Paris, Singapore and on a golf outing, but apparently everyone is saying it is OK because the Navy is picking up the tab. Seems to me that the taxpayer shouldn't pick up the tab.

(source:foreignpolicy.com)

New tactics alter flavor of lobbying

WASHINGTON - -- For decades, the National Restaurant Association was the poster child for the unbreakable alliance between Washington's business lobbyists and the Republican Party.

One of the most potent grass-roots lobbying groups in the capital, the group helped kill Bill Clinton's health care plan, bankrolled Newt Gingrich's Republican Revolution, and year after year helped drive stakes through such Democratic proposals as raising the minimum wage and protecting the environment.

But something strange happened after Barack Obama became president: Courted and cosseted by savvy White House political operatives, the National Restaurant Association and some other business powerhouses changed their stripes.

The "other NRA," for example, ousted its conservative leader and installed a more pragmatic chief executive. It began to take meetings with once-hated Democratic politicians, including White House aides. And when the titanic battle over health care began, the restaurant group broke ranks with such unreconstructed business groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and declined to attack the White House.

The shift is a tale of changing political tides, the ultimate practicality of business executives and of a successful Obama White House effort to reach out for allies among traditional adversaries. And it's beginning to change the balance of power inside the Beltway.

The new strategy embraced by the restaurant group and others such as the Business Roundtable has allowed them access to Democratic decision-makers and a chance to influence or at least mitigate proposed policy changes.

"The political landscape changed so dramatically over a short period of time that we had to make a decision on how to respond," said Jot Condie, president and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, who is on the board of the national group. "Are we going to lob bombs from afar and understand that return fire will kill us? Or should we try to mitigate legislation that is a relative certainty?"

The restaurant association began to shed its conservative aura in late 2007, installing Dawn Sweeney, a longtime Washington player known for pragmatism, bipartisanship and marketing savvy, as its first woman CEO.

The organization continued to meet with conservatives, but it also began talking with consumer activists, Democratic party leaders and White House officials.

"What we are trying to do is see how we can be at the table," Sweeney said. "If you are not at the table, you are on the menu."

When the health care battle came to a boil this fall, the National Restaurant Association was among those that broke ranks with such business groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, declining to join their "Start Over" coalition that has launched an advertising campaign against the reform bills in key states.

The decision, along with those made by the drug industry and a handful of other business trade associations, helped Democrats keep their initiative moving. It also gave the National Restaurant Association access to the White House and to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, allowing them to be heard on key issues, such as whether small business would be exempted from some of the new law's requirements.

On the eve of the Senate's health care vote Dec. 23, Sweeney entered the White House gates to meet with, among others, the Obama family's personal chef, Sam Kass.

Sweeney, who represents the interests of the megachains such as McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts, also discussed first lady Michelle Obama's plans for combating childhood obesity.

"We should play a leading role," she said.

She took a similar approach, dubbed "mitigation and damage control" by members of her board, to consumer activists' demands that the health care bill include provisions on restaurant nutrition labeling.

Sweeney and her board members met with food safety activists at the Center for Science in the Public Interest to hammer out a precedent-setting industry-consumer deal on the issue. The compromise, forwarded to the House and Senate health committees, provided that calorie information be printed on menus, but more detailed information such as fat and cholesterol content would be available on request.

Sweeney has not endorsed the recently passed Senate bill, but she is able to tell her members that the excesses of earlier proposals were dropped thanks in part to the restaurant group's participation. And she notes that effective lobbying killed efforts to tax soft drinks, one of the most profitable items for restaurants, in the name of reducing obesity.

Her new friends at the White House have helped provide access to the Commerce Department, where Sweeney is in the early stages of developing a proposal that would have likely stunned her predecessors: using stimulus funds to encourage Americans to dine out and support the restaurant industry.

Sweeney makes the case that "restaurants are major providers of jobs, employing 13 million individuals in restaurants nationwide," making it the second-largest private sector employer in the country, after health care.

In November, Sweeney was one of 13 trade association chiefs invited to meet with Nancy-Ann DeParle, Obama's health care czar. Sweeney laid out a handful of specific fixes that could win her organization's support.

Among them: Exempt small businesses from the law's penalties, change the calculation for defining part-time workers to allow for the seasonal fluctuations in the industry, and raise the minimum time allowed for complying with paperwork and registration requirements.

Those proposals alarm labor advocates, who see them as a way for employers to avoid providing benefits to workers.

Yet, most were adopted, at least partially, in the Senate bill, and Sweeney hopes for further gains when House and Senate leaders meet to reconcile their meetings.

Neil Trautwein of the National Retail Federation credits the Obama White House for tactical brilliance in finding ways to split the business community on health care.

"The genius of the administration's approach was to set broad principles and allow Congress to fill in the details," he said. "This immediately divided the focus of outside groups and ... it delayed development of a unified opposition."

Source:chicagotribune.com/

Cumbrians lobby for flood repair contracts

Businesses in Cumbria are lobbying for a share in the county's rebuilding effort after last week's devastating floods.

The costs of the clean-up, which includes rebuilding several bridges, could run into tens of millions of pounds. The government has already pledged £1m, while the Federation of Small Businesses wants local companies to win contracts to help them recover from their losses.

Stephen Alambritis, FSB spokesman, said: "We are asking the insurance industry to keep trade local. After the floods in Yorkshire in 2007 the insurers were pulling in decorators and builders from 200 to 300 miles away."

Reconstruction work has already begun. In the worst affected town, Workington, where one bridge has collapsed and another been condemned, Network Rail is scheduled to open a temporary rail station to link north and south on Monday. Some 200 soldiers are installing a footbridge across the River Derwent, which is due to be completed at the weekend.

The bridge, paid for by the government, is provided by Mabey and Johnson, the Twyford-based company that made the preassembled Bailey Bridges in the second world war.

In September it agreed to pay £6.6m in fines and compensation after pleading guilty to paying bribes to win contracts in Ghana and Jamaica and breaching UN sanctions on Iraq. Mabey and Johnson said it could also supply bridges suitable for cars, although they would take some weeks to install.

Cumbria County Council said it was too early to put a price on the necessary work. Six bridges have collapsed and 1,300 should receive a preliminary check by the weekend. So far seven need further inspections by divers. The council said the government would help meet the cost of repairing damaged infrastructure.

Mr Alambritis said 80 per cent of small businesses hit by disaster on the scale of the floods take two to three years to regain lost sales. The FSB is offering loans of £5,000 to help companies with cash to replace equipment and restart operations. Typical losses range from £40,000-£80,000 per company, he said.

The North West Regional Development Agency has pledged up to £1m for small businesses in grants of up to £10,000.

John Wright, FSB president, who visited Cockermouth yesterday, said: "Many shops in the high street are open again. Others are selling their goods in community halls. The resilience is incredible."

However, he said banks should offer loans, since cash flow was key to avoiding bankruptcies. The FSB is asking councils to waive business rates for floodaffected companies. The government would refund 75 per cent of the cost.

Prince Charles turned on the Christmas lights in Keswick yesterday and declared the town "open for business". Larger businesses were more fortunate. Jennings, which brews its Lakeland ales such as Sneck Lifter in Cockermouth, said it would move production to other breweries owned by Marstons, its proprietor. It hoped brewing would restart on site by mid-January. Some 10p from every pint sold would go to the charity fund for flood victims, which has already raised more than £600,000.

Tony Holliday, who runs adventure holiday company KLM Travel in Keswick, said he was back in his office but had lost equipment to the floods and the company's chauffeur car had been written off by water in the engine.

He has had to increase his overdraft. "It is the busiest time for bookings and I am worried about losing them because we cannot service the inquiries," he said. With the £1bn tourism industry accounting for a fifth of the economy, such worries will be widespread.

Source:ft.com