Politics

Sunrise (2/11/11)

By Paul Blumenthal

PRESIDENT OPPOSES OWN TRANSPARENCY

--Pogo: "[Yesterday], the Obama Administration vacated a proposal to enhance contract transparency. The proposal would have amended Federal Acquisition Regulation to enable the online posting of contracts and task and delivery orders. POGO supported that proposal, which fell in line with Obama?s efforts in the Senate to improve public access to federal spending dollars. ... One of those efforts, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA)?co-sponsored by then-Senator Obama and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)?was signed by former President Bush on September 26, 2006. That legislation created the government?s database of contracts and grants, which totaled over $1.1 trillion in FY 2010. Incredibly, today's decision would seem to place the Obama Administration in opposition with subsequent transparency legislation co-sponsored by then-Senator Obama, Senator Coburn, and others."

BLOOMBERG'S INFORMATION LOBBYING

--The Nation: "The company?s tactical goal was to block the Comcast-NBC deal unless the government required the merged company to put Bloomberg TV on a station next to CNBC. Schwartzman explains that it was an extremely ?sophisticated? operation. (Greg Babyak, Bloomberg?s in-house lobbyist, referred The Nation?s call for information to Bloomberg?s new top PR official in Washington, Sarah Feinberg, who left the Obama administration to take the position in March 2010. The company declined to comment.) ... One of the first moves Bloomberg LP made as it laid out its game plan against Comcast was to hire Kevin Martin, who retired as head of the FCC in 2009, as its lawyer for the issue. Martin, who works for the lobbying and legal powerhouse Patton Boggs, is not listed as lobbyist for Bloomberg because he performs legal work, but others at Patton Boggs were registered as lobbyists, and Bloomberg LP has paid those lobbyists $340,000 since last spring. Patton Boggs, of course, is one of the largest and most effective firms on K Street. ... The other big gun in Bloomberg?s lobbying arsenal was Glover Park Group. This is a growing powerhouse in Washington, a Democratic shop on K Street with excellent contacts in the Obama administration and the Democratic establishment. Among its luminaries are Joe Lockhart and Dee Dee Myers. Glover Park was partially owned by Howard Wolfson, the Democratic political operative and former Hillary Clinton spokesman who helped Mayor Bloomberg win his historic 2009 third campaign for mayor in New York City. Wolfson, like other top campaign workers, was paid a $400,000 bonus by the grateful mayor after the vote, and a subsidiary of Wolfson?s firm made $490,000 in the campaign."

FUNDRAISING PARTIES TODAY

--Tons of parties today. See them all here.

YESTERDAY

--Day in Transparency (2/10/11)

--Day in Sunlight (2/10/11)

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on February 11, 2011 (boomark / email).