Did you hear about Joe Biden’s slew of recent bipartisan endorsements from former U.S. senators of all ideological stripes?
California liberal Barbara Boxer, Arkansas centrist Democrat Blanche Lincoln, five-term Republican Sen. John Warner, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all endorsed Biden in the aftermath of his South Carolina win. It’s a geographically and ideologically diverse crew lining up behind Biden, or so it seems.
From another perspective, though, it’s just the K-Street gang, lining up behind K Street-connected Joe Biden and against the socialist guy.
Blanche Lincoln runs her own lobbying firm, and her endorsement of Biden should be understood in that light. Her clients include Pfizer, Comcast, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, and plenty of others. Pfizer has every reason to oppose Bernie Sanders, and as of today, that means supporting Joe Biden.
Barbara Boxer, a few weeks ago, joined Mercury Public Affairs, whose clients include Lockheed Martin, the government of Qatar, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield chapters. Boxer is not registered as a lobbyist, but she is still working on federal policy with corporate clients.
John Warner left the U.S. Senate to become a lobbyist at K Street’s Hogan & Hartson (now called Hogan Lovells). He lobbied on behalf of foreign satellite makers against export controls aimed at preventing the Chinese military from copying American technology and potentially using it to make weapons.
Warner had supported those very export restrictions as a senator.
“When hard decisions must be made, national security must always be the paramount consideration,” Warner said in 2001. He attacked the companies opposed to the restrictions: “I am afraid there are those, including people in the corporate boardrooms across this country, who sometimes are not mindful about what serves as the foundation of our economic strength and their ability to project beyond our shores.”
By 2009, lobbyist Warner was singing a different tune. “I remember the Strom Thurmond Act — that’s fine,” he told me. “I stand by whatever I said. I don’t remember what I said, but I’ll be delighted to read it in your column tomorrow. But I know this is an industry that needs help, and I’m privileged to be in a position to try and help them.”
Warner, then, knows where his bread is buttered. Now he’s backing Biden.
Harry Reid isn’t a lobbyist, but it’s hard to find a senator more bound up with K Street than Reid. His Senate chiefs of staff became lobbyists. His sons became lobbyists. Reid did what the lobbyists want. He raised his money from lobbyists.
Of course, K Street is home territory for Joe Biden, who was almost as tied up with lobbyists as Reid was. Hunter Biden founded a lobbying firm. Joe’s top White House and Senate staffers are all revolving-door lobbyists. His campaign chairman is a revolving-door lobbyist.
Many congressmen-turned lobbyists and senators-turned lobbyists have endorsed Biden already, including Chris Dodd, Bill Delahunt, and Al Wynn.
Other K Street Democrats were undecided when their options included Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren. Now it seems their choices are Bernie and Biden. That’s not a hard call for the corporate lobbyists.
