One of Their Own

By Michael Grunwald

When Michael Baroody of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) withdrew his nomination to run the Consumer Product Safety Commission on May 23, Democrats cheered that a fox had been barred from the henhouse. But, they sighed, President George W. Bush had otherwise succeeded in turning government over to businessmen.

But Baroody is no businessman. He's a business lobbyist. The distinction is crucial to understanding an Administration in which energy lobbyists oversee mining and drilling, timber lobbyists oversee logging and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association has practically moved to the Department of Agriculture. These are Washington people, not corporate people. They make legislation, not payroll. They're insider hens who side with foxes and know the henhouse well.

The capitalist ideal is free markets and level playing fields; the lobbyist ideal is influencing the levers of power to help clients. In 2004 the Denver Post found 100 Bush appointees regulating industries they used to represent as lobbyists or lawyers. That didn't include former quasi-lobbyists like Vice President Dick Cheney, who became a CEO because Halliburton wanted government contracts.

The result is not just the oil lobbyist caught editing science out of climate reports, or the energy lobbyist convicted in the Abramoff scandal. It's the scandal-free corporate welfare, tax breaks and other Big Government goodies for industry. Baroody is a family man, a policy wonk whose father founded a think tank. But he's been working the Washington henhouse since 1970, and he has fought to shield manufacturers from claims and fines. Giving a NAM lobbyist power over consumer safety would have been like giving a child power over bedtime. It's only a problem if you expect enforcement.