Washington Examiner columnist Timothy Carney is taking on The Competition today, mocking The Washington Post for what he reports is their unique way of reporting "That pattern we never told you about, of corporate lobbyists favoring Democrats, is ending". The Business Roundtable tapped former Republican Gov. John Engler as its CEO, and reporter Dan Eggen found it moving to the right -- but never told Post readers that they had previously moved to the left to win friends in the new socialist administration:
Today, Eggen has a piece headlined "With Republican as leader, Obama-friendly Business Roundtable may become less so." Eggen writes:
Engler's appointment suggests a potential shift in emphasis for the Business Roundtable, which represents top corporate executives and had parted ways with the Chamber of Commerce and other major business groups in supporting President Obama's health-care overhaul legislation....
So the Roundtable might be moving to the Right. But this is the first time Eggen has let us know they ever were "Obama friendly." Eggen and colleague Michael Shear briefly noted in July that the administration has "reached out to other groups, such as the Business Roundtable," never describing the Roundtable's response.
The other time Eggen mentioned the Business Roundtable: "As head of the Business Roundtable -- an association of chief executives of major U.S. companies -- Castellani has opposed most Democratic legislative initiatives, including the health-care overhaul. But he has managed to do so without alienating adversaries."
Then there was the time Eggen folded the Roundtable into this piece: "Financial, business interests step up lobbying against overhaul bill."
Other items in this Eggen genre include "Wall Street shifting political donations to Republicans" -- because in the fourth quarter of 2009 Wall Street only slightly favored Democrats. Eggen had never let us know about Wall Street's jaw-dropping favoritism towards the Democrats. I reported at the time:
the Securities and Investment Industry, Wall Street, gave 63% of its money to Democrats, improving on the Democrats' majorities from the 2006 and 2008 cycle when Wall Street gave Dems 52% and 57% of campaign cash. In fact, the numbers for the 2010 cycle so far are the most one-sided numbers we've seen from Wall Street as far back as records go.
As gravy, the top three Wall Street recipients are all Democrats, and 8 of the top 10 are Democrats.
In the end, Democrats raised more from Wall Street than Republicans did. That didn't show up in the Post either, as far as I can tell.
