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Senior Democrats are starting to discuss ways to target Washington-based lobbying firms whose clients include the Iraqi government as part of their election-year strategy to seize on the costs of the five-year-old war.
After repeatedly failing to bring troops home from Iraq, Democrats recognize they might have a better chance of winning politically if they continue to hammer away at how money for the war is being spent amid the country’s economic slowdown.
Supporters of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign say that an emphasis on Iraq and how tax dollars might have been channeled back to K Street also feeds into his campaign theme of attacking the role of lobbyists in Washington. Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the vice chairman of the Democratic Conference, said Tuesday that Congress might target the firms by adding language to the wartime supplemental spending bill now being developed behind closed doors. The language is still being drafted, but it could entail a State Department investigation into the use of the funds or language prohibiting Iraq from using U.S. dollars to hire Washington lobbyists, according to aides and senators briefed on the proposal.
“It is something we’re looking at,” Schumer said Tuesday, declining to comment further.
Schumer plans to call attention to the issue this week, according to an aide.
A key supporter of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, said countries hire lobbyists all the time, and at least one Democrat cautioned against the precedent of limiting who can hire an advocate in Washington.
But others are more inclined to take a closer look.
Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a key Obama supporter, said examining the issue would “absolutely” fit in with Obama’s campaign theme.
“Frankly, Iraq has got the best lobbyist in the world — it’s called President Bush and Vice President Cheney,” McCaskill said. “If we can determine that our money is hiring lobbyists for Iraq, that is really going to make me angry, and I think it would make most Americans really angry.”
Since the war began in 2003, major lobbying firms have quietly accepted clients that represent Iraqi interests, pushing lawmakers to make sure that Congress does not approve legislation running counter to their objectives in the country.
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