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CONGRESS DAILY: JUST A LITTLE HELP FOR A FRIEND
The following excerpt from "The Friday Buzz" was written by Louis Jacobsen
and appeared in Congress Daily on Friday, January 25, 2002.
The press release from the National Federation of Independent
Business was hardly unexpected: The group's PAC would announce
Thursday its endorsement of former Rep. Jim Talent, R-Mo.,
a former House Small Business Committee chairman who is seeking
to unseat Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan this fall. The unusual thing
was that, until recently, Talent was actually a paid lobbyist for
NFIB. In March, Talent joined the law firm Arent, Fox, Kintner,
Plotkin & Kahn, and within a few months he and others at the firm
were hired by NFIB to lobby on legislation that would allow trade
associations to offer health insurance to their members - a rare
outside-lobbying retainer for an association whose in-house
lobbying staff wields legendary clout.
By now, Talent has given up both his position with the law
firm and his NFIB gig, but while it lasted the maneuver was
ingenious. By hiring Talent as a lobbyist at a time when his
senatorial run was widely expected, NFIB was able to reward its
longtime friend with much more money than it ever could have
donated to his campaign fund. While Talent's lobbying fees are
paid to him personally, not his campaign treasury, those funds
helped him maintain a decent standard of living while laying the
groundwork for his campaign. Even better, the gambit is 100
percent legal. While the size of Talent's lobbying fees will be
disclosed within another few weeks, "consulting" fees not
considered lobbying-related do not have to be reported - and for
many Washington lobbyists those payments can be substantial, said
Bill Allison of the Center for Public Integrity. Best of all for
NFIB, the group can hardly be accused of buying off a candidate.
In the House, Talent worked assiduously to promote the low-tax,
pro-growth policies backed by the NFIB.
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