Roll Call reported today that House Speaker Dennis Hastert is, like all good retired Republican officials, becoming a lobbyist. He's joining a senior staffer in his office and Al Wynn at Dickstein Shapiro, one of the largest law firms in DC and one with over 100 of the Fortune 500 as clients.
It's rather telling that Hastert would join a firm that prides itself on tolerance for an atmosphere of 'inclusion and respect' for, among others, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, given that he voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation as recently as November, 2007, and for a constitutional amendment to deny gay people marriage rights. Does Hastert actually care about family values? Would someone who actually is committed to conservative family values genuinely join a multi-cultural tolerant law firm in a metropolitan area?
Hastert strikes me as a handmaiden to big business, much like his new colleague Al Wynn. Dickstein Shapiro represents mercenaries, like Triple Canopy, big telecom (AT%T) that wiretap without a warrant, and Bear Stearns, the rogue investment bank bailed out by the Fed during the mortgage mess. It truly does provide lawyers to monsters. And here's what the firm brags on its client endorsement sheet.
The Firm's government affairs attorneys are dedicated to providing clients with focused and cost-effective advocacy in the councils of federal and state governments. The practice includes former U.S. Senators and former members of the House of Representatives, and several other former public servants who held senior positions at the White House or elsewhere in the executive branch, or who served on congressional staffs or in elected state offices.
These big law firms are repositories for government talent, cycling officials in and out of private practice. It's a massive conflict of interest. And I suppose nothing says that better than Dennis Hastert, scion of Republican family values, warmly embracing the employ of a massive corporate law firm that speaks highly of its commitment to gay, bisexual, and trangendered individuals.
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