Kay's ties to lobbyists could compromise her attack strategy

Oops Kay is a raging hypocrite... who could have seen that coming? The Texas Tribune sez Kay might want to look in the mirror (link). Excerpt follows...

• A look in the mirror? Not only have 23 of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's advisors gone on to lobbying careers, but she just hired a former lobbyist for data company Choicepoint as a senior adviser in her Senate office. Oops. The revelation is Perry's response to Hutchison's new commercial, which criticizes Perry's "cronies" who circulate through jobs in his office and in the lobby.

Oops.... It turns out that Kay has a major ethics deficit despite her really cookie cutter attacks against Rick on ethics (link). Excerpt follows...

WASHINGTON – Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has blasted Gov. RickPerry in recent debates and television ads as driven by the desires of lobbyists, but at least 23 former Hutchison aides have gone onto lucrative lobbying careers in Washington, according to Senate records.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison brought up the lobbyist issue with the Dallas County Republican Women Tuesday. " style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; ">

DAVID WOO/DMN

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison brought up the lobbyist issue with the Dallas County Republican Women Tuesday.

And last year, Hutchison hired a former lobbyist for data company Choicepoint as a senior adviser in her Senate office.

In an ad that began airing Thursday, Hutchison's campaign says lobbyists loom over Perry's office, influencing major policies such as compulsory vaccinations for young girls and toll road contracts.

The senator's attacks are hypocritical, Perry's campaign aides argued, because of her longstanding association with lobbyists. Hutchison's aides say that unlike the governor, she has never been unduly influenced by them.

[SNIP]

Earlier this week, Perry's team tied Hutchison's vote for the 2008 bank bailout program to lobbying by a former chief of staff, Dick Ribbentrop, who now works for Swiss bank UBS and lobbied on that issue, according to Senate records.

"It's a clear connection," said Mark Miner, a Perry spokesman. "The senator is being hypocritical in making accusations when the fact of the matter is her own staff is leaving to become lobbyists and she is hiring staff members who were lobbyists."

Senate records show that Ribbentrop lobbied for the New York Stock Exchange for three years before he became her chief of staff in 2005. He left her office in 2007 to join UBS, where another former Hutchison aide, John Savercool, is a senior lobbyist. Lobbying laws don't require lobbyists to indicate which lawmakers they contact on an issue. Ribbentrop didn't return a message seeking comment.

In 2009, Hutchison rehired a former aide, David W. Davis, as senior adviser after he spent four years as vice president for government affairs at Choicepoint. She rehired another former aide, Lisette Mondello, whose husband once worked for Hutchison and now lobbies for Southwest Airlines and the Port of Houston Authority.

What would make someone with this kind of tawdry record on lobbying and ethics... including someone who had a chief of staff who lobbied for the bailout... what would make Kay attack Rick on ethics of all things?

As I blogged yesterday (link)... let she who is without sin cast the first stone. Senators who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

More than cronyism... people hate hypocrisy. Kay is an amazingly huge hypocrite on this issue. It seriously amazes me that she would go down this path...

What is crazy about Kay's new attack ad is that it doesn't offer any reason to vote for Kay. I feel like anyone who actually responds to the ad will just go to Medina.... the non career politician...