Despite the Obama administration’s alleged aversion to lobbyists, it turns out, surprise, that lobbying may have continued unabated in Washington.
The outs are now in, given last November’s election, but the power lunches and dinners at Ristorante Tosca, a Washington gathering spot for the lobbying class, continue, according to a recent story in The Washington Post.
And at the F Street restaurant, as in life, location is important, the best tables going to the lobbyists with the most influence.
Steven A. Elmendorf, a Democrat and the president of Elmendorf Strategies, lays continual claim to Table 45, a preferred spot.
It’s an upgrade, the Post reports. There was a time, presumably a Republican time, when Elmendorf was stuck in a cramped part of the restaurant filled with two-seater tables.
Elmendorf brings solid gold lobbying credentials to his current table.
He paid his dues working from 1992 to 2004 as a senior adviser to Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt, who served as House majority leader and House minority leader while in Congress.
During that time Elmendorf was often cited for being one of the most effective congressional staffers.
Openly gay, he also was seen as someone who helped shape Gephardt’s gay-friendly record on civil rights legislation.
Elmendorf served as chief of staff for Gephardt’s presidential campaign in 2004 until Gephardt dropped out. Elmendorf then became a deputy campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid.
In 2005, Elmendorf joined the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP as a government affairs strategist in the firm’s lobbying arm, Bryan Cave Strategies.
Two years later, in January 2007, he started Elmendorf Strategies.
The firm has a wide variety of clients. According to U.S. Senate disclosure reports, they include Ford Motor, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Verizon and United Health.
Strengthening its already strong Democratic connections, Elmendorf hired James A. “Jimmy” Ryan in May. A former aide to Sen. Harry Reid, the current majority leader, Ryan came to Elmendorf from Citigroup, a client of Elmendorf Strategies.
The Washington Post story by Manuel Roig-Franziadoes does not mention where Ryan sits at Tosca, though it does locate other lobbyists.
Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democrat leader and a key adviser on health matters, gets Table 26. Power lobbying couple Tony and Heather Podesta have Table 60.
The Post’s sometimes gushy documenting of the moving and shaking at Tosca rubbed Thomas Frank, the Wall Street Journal’s liberal columnist, the wrong way. Pointing to other stories as well, he found that the paper has adopted a “worshipful attitude toward the lobbyist set.”
The Post doesn’t go so far as to link to Tosca’s menu. Visitors to that site can learn that the higher-priced items on its September dinner menu included lobster risotto ($32), grilled Angus N.Y. strip steak ($38) and rack of veal ($42).
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