BP, Transocean Hire Swarm of Lobbyists

The oil gushing into the Gulf has been black gold for one someone: the lobbyist. BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and many, many other small and large industry players affected by the spill have hired a bevy of lobbyists from both sides of the aisle, reports the Washington Post, which offers an almost exhaustive list of the movers and shakers involved.

On the Democratic side, for example, BP has tapped a former Clinton Justice official and a longtime Walter Mondale aide, among many others; on the GOP side, they’re employing a former press secretary for Dick Cheney. But one lobbyist says nothing untoward is going on—they're mostly just "trying to give information to people; it has not been focused on policy questions at all." Then he added, "Until the leak is plugged, there's not a lot of patience for the industry." (More Transocean stories.)