What's Wrong With Washington

posted by Ari Berman on 08/25/2009 @ 7:24pm

 I've never met Heather Podesta. I've only spoken to her husband, Tony, once. But I found this Washington Post profile of her on Sunday incredibly distasteful. And I imagine I wasn't alone.

Sample quote from the "it girl" lobbyist, nonchalantly praising herself in third person: "This is a very good time to be a Democratic lobbyist...it's incredibly exciting to be able to engage with Democrats and really see things happen. It's always a good time to be Heather Podesta."

Wow, so much for modesty! It's not clear what things happening Podesta is referring to. The Post notes her clients include:

health-care clients such as insurance giants Cigna and HealthSouth, drugmaker Eli Lilly and the breast cancer group Susan G. Komen for the Cure; financial powerhouses such as Prudential and Swiss Reinsurance Co.; and energy outfits such as Marathon Oil, the major utility Southern Co. and Climate Masters, a geothermal heating firm.

Southern Co has spent millions of dollars trying to kill legislation aimed at combating global warming. Eli Lilly has poured more money than any other drugmaker into opposing President Obama's healthcare reform efforts. Marathon Oil is one of the top polluters in the United States. Why would a self-proclaimed Democrat openly brag about representing any of these outfits? (She also happens to be the sister-in-law of John Podesta, the former Clinton chief of staff who managed President Obama's transition.)

The article further describes how "at last year's Democratic convention, Podesta wore a scarlet L to razz Obama for talking so much about curbing lobbyist enthusiasm. She rejected about a dozen mock-ups before settling on a Gothic-style letter, which became such a popular giveaway that she blew through 100 of them."

Yes, because being a lobbyist is so contrarian. Way to take a stand Heather!

Change on K Street simply means replacing one class of lobbyists with another. In Obama's Washington, people like Heather Podesta should be shunned, not celebrated.