Washington Wire: Obama’s N.J. Fund-Raiser: A Compromise or Two?

[Omaha Steve]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/10/06/obamas-nj-fund-raiser-a-compromise-or-two/?mod=rss_WSJBlog%2cWSJ_Politics_Blog

By Jonathan Weisman

When money is the issue, a politician may have to make some compromises – and President Barack Obama’s appearance this evening at a New Jersey fund-raiser has compromises galore.

The $30,400-a-plate dinner will be at the Cresskill home of Michael Kempner, whose public relations and lobbying firm MWW Group has represented positions and firms that, shall we say, have not always been on board with Obama and the Democratic Party.


President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the Diplomatic Corps Reception Tuesday. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)


A white paper on the firm’s website on the Employee Free Choice Act – a bill, commonly known as card check, to ease unionization – reads, “Whether the legislation ultimately passes or not, it is clear that organized labor intends to play a more active role in the relationship between employees and their employers. This can complicate the relationship, divide loyalties and lead to polarization, where collaboration and teamwork are required.”

“True, that line isn’t loving us,” quipped Eddie Vale, political communications director of the AFL-CIO.

The firm’s lobbying arm had represented plenty of Democrat-friendly clients, like the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the Whitman Walker Clinic, an AIDS treatment specialist, and the Association of Jewish Federations. But it has also lobbied for loads of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and health insurers, Bacardi, the Central American Sugar Association, the Cuban American Foundation, and the late IndyMac Bank, seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

MWW counts as its clients the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, currently at war with the Democratic Party, Gold’s Gym, whose owner, Robert B. Rowling, is currently bankrolling Karl Rove’s new multi-million-dollar effort to unseat Democrats in Congress, and Domino’s Pizza, whose executives have long been big in conservative politics.

And ahead of his trip to Asia, the president might not want to talk up MWW’s lobbying on behalf of the Friends of Falun Gong.