More Romney Rats

I recently got hold of a list of co-chairs for a Mitt Romney fundraiser in DC back on February 27, that’s chock-full of top-level lobbyists. Several are with Dutko, the firm of Massachusetts’s RNC committeeman and Romney supporter Ron Kaufman. Several are current or former lobbyists for big Pharma or big tobacco. Several have direct connections to indicted former speaker Tom DeLay and/or convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. 

There are also at least two connections to the Bill Clinton impeachment: Alice M. Starr, wife of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, and Drew Maloney, who helped manage the impeachment hearings for Congress, and helped conduct the Monica Lewinsky interview.

However, what really fascinated me was the presence of quite a few of the top lobbyists for the energy industry -- including Maloney, who has lobbied for the American Petroleum Institute, Texas Energy Center, and Gas Technology Institute. Other include Kent Burton lobbyist for many of the biggest gas and petroleum companies; Jack Gerard, former president of the National Mining Association, a major coal-industry lobby; Rick Shelby, lobbyist for the American Gas Association; and Vin Weber, lobbyist for Edison Electric and General Electric.

The reason I was so struck is because of another name on that same list of Romney fundraisers: Andrew Lundquist. Lundquist was executive director of the National Energy Policy Development Group -- you know, the advisors who developed the administration’s national energy policy, and whose members Cheney has steadfastly refused to make public. Lundquist went on to be Cheney’s energy policy director, implementing the group’s recommendations. Then he left the administration to become -- you’ll never guess -- a top lobbyist for energy companies, including British Petroleum and Mettiki Coal.

Was the Romney fundraiser a partial reunion of Lundquist’s secret Cheney energy policy group? And have they found a new friend in Mitt Romney?