Piggybacking on that, his older son, Joshua, hit Washington soon after Denny became Speaker in 1999. Voila! The pierced-tongued owner of a record store in DeKalb called Seven Dead Arson became a lobbyist focusing on technology and defense issues. Josh started his new gig, working for mp3.com’s lobbyist who had been an aide to former House Republican Minority Leader Bob Michel, a close colleague of Josh’s father.
Josh then moved to a small firm, Federal Legislative Associates, that lobbied on tech issues. Moving on up, he was soon hired by lobbying firm, Podesta Mattoon, headed by two old friends of his father’s—Tony Podesta, a fellow Illinoisan, and, with Hastert, a student government leader in the 1960s, and Dan Matoon, a close friend/advisor of Hastert’s who ran his first congressional campaign. In 2006, while his father was still holding the Speaker’s gavel, Josh was hired by Google as part of a team of Podesta Matton lobbyists.
In a conversation with Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker, Josh held up his father as a model—they both love small business—and, as a lobbyist, he told Franzen, he’d be helping “smaller defense contractors…who are taking on the Big Four contractors.” (Josh would later become a registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin.) He had promised not to lobby his father but didn’t extend the promise to other congressmen. “I never introduce myself as ‘Joshua Hastert, son of the speaker,’” he told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet. He didn’t have to. A website promoting his skills touted his “long-standing relationships with numerous offices on Capitol Hill and in the administration.”
John Doe gets elected, then his brother in law gets a huge government contract for a newly formed company, his sons get influential lobbying jobs in DC, his wife gets 2 board positions making $150k/year to sit on the boards of companies that need favors.
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anon401 ago
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/June-2015/Dennis-Hastert/
https://archive.is/yGdyu
Piggybacking on that, his older son, Joshua, hit Washington soon after Denny became Speaker in 1999. Voila! The pierced-tongued owner of a record store in DeKalb called Seven Dead Arson became a lobbyist focusing on technology and defense issues. Josh started his new gig, working for mp3.com’s lobbyist who had been an aide to former House Republican Minority Leader Bob Michel, a close colleague of Josh’s father.
Josh then moved to a small firm, Federal Legislative Associates, that lobbied on tech issues. Moving on up, he was soon hired by lobbying firm, Podesta Mattoon, headed by two old friends of his father’s—Tony Podesta, a fellow Illinoisan, and, with Hastert, a student government leader in the 1960s, and Dan Matoon, a close friend/advisor of Hastert’s who ran his first congressional campaign. In 2006, while his father was still holding the Speaker’s gavel, Josh was hired by Google as part of a team of Podesta Matton lobbyists.
In a conversation with Jonathan Franzen for The New Yorker, Josh held up his father as a model—they both love small business—and, as a lobbyist, he told Franzen, he’d be helping “smaller defense contractors…who are taking on the Big Four contractors.” (Josh would later become a registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin.) He had promised not to lobby his father but didn’t extend the promise to other congressmen. “I never introduce myself as ‘Joshua Hastert, son of the speaker,’” he told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet. He didn’t have to. A website promoting his skills touted his “long-standing relationships with numerous offices on Capitol Hill and in the administration.”
pizzaequalspedo ago
This is how DC works, at our expense.
John Doe gets elected, then his brother in law gets a huge government contract for a newly formed company, his sons get influential lobbying jobs in DC, his wife gets 2 board positions making $150k/year to sit on the boards of companies that need favors.
It has to stop.