Well, it turns out that if you open the PDF version of the Republican’s “A Pledge to America,” their follow-up to the 1994 “Contract With America,” you learn that the author of the document was not, actually, some staffer in House Minority Leader John Boehner’s office,* but none other than Brian Wild. The Hill:
Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports that Wild, as a lobbyist at the Nickels Group, “was paid $740,000 in lobbying contracts from AIG, the former insurance company at the heart of the financial collapse; $800,000 from energy giant Andarko Petroleum; more than $1.1 million from Comcast; more than $1.3 million from Exxon Mobil; and $625,000 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc.” Wild has been in and out of the influence-peddling game — having served on the government payrolls of a number of Republican members of Congress (Pat Toomey, Hank Brown) and even Vice President Dick Cheney. Between government payroll gigs, he served as a lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and represented major utilities and mining organizations.
Update: Ouch. As it turns out, Brian Wild is actually on Boehner’s payroll. My mistake.
