GOP blueprint bashes special interests, written by special interests

The Republican’s new “Pledge for America,” the extended sequel to 1994’s “Contract With America” (anyone else wonder why it took them 16 years to produce a sequel?), attempts to separate Republicans in Congress from the special interests in Washington. Their document, they say, is “one in which the people have the most say and the best ideas trump the most entrenched interests.”

“Entrenched interests.” Ha.

Don’t look too closely at the digital paper trail of this document if you don’t appreciate entrenched interests; otherwise, you’d be shocked to learn that the document’s “author,” Brian Wild, is the epitome of a Washington “entrenched interest.”

Mr. Wild, until April of this year, was a registered lobbyist working for some of the most entrenched special interests in Washington. Now he’s on House Republican Leader John Boehner’s (Ohio) government payroll and responsible for the “Pledge.”

Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports that Wild, as a lobbyist at the Nickels Group, “was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast; more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.” Wild has been in and out of the influence-peddling game — having served on the government payrolls of a number of Republican members of Congress (Pat Toomey, Hank Brown) and even Vice President Dick Cheney. Between government payroll gigs, he served as a lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and represented major utilities and mining organizations.

So it’s the same story, different day from congressional Republicans. It has been reported that lobbyists have written floor speeches for House Republicans and bills for Senate Republicans. Now lobbyists are writing the agenda for House Republicans as they pretend to be free from lobbyist and special-interest influence.

So what can we really expect from House Republicans? Maybe this tweet from Rick Kline at ABC did more in 12 words than the Pledge does in 21 pages to offer voters some insight: “Boehner: ‘We are not going to be any different than we've been.’ ”