Thursday, March 20, 2008

Garrett Hires Former Lobbyist

Well, this is interesting.

Representative Scott Garrett has lost long time Chief of Staff Michelle Presson, who was without a doubt a soundbite flamethrower. I had great respect for her ability to get Garrett's point of view (or maybe her own) across in about 10 words.

Replacing her, according to Herb Jackson, is Amy D. Smith. A veteran of Capitol Hill, Ms. Smith has also worked for Senator Bob Dole and Rep. Brian Billbray. As also noted by Jackson, Ms. Smith was a lobbyist. Apparently, it was for the firm Bartlett, Bendall, & Kadesh, LLC for a few years.

Among the firm's current roster of clients includes folks like Freddie Mac, NBC Universal, the Motion Picture Association of America, and a slew of banks and financial firms from Morgan Stanley to Washington Mutual. Kind of makes this quote from Jackson even more interesting if that was the firm:
Now she's moved to Garrett's team, where his committee assignments on financial services and budget fit her interests.

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