Update: There’s another heavy-hitter in Potawatomi’s D.C. lobbying lineup (you remember, the folks who lobbied the Executive Office of the President)

The media are starting to catch on to the Potawatomi lobbying story we told you about last week. Check out this item from today’s WisPolitics.com “DC Wrap,” which points out that the Forest County Potawatomi spent more to lobby federal officials than any other Wisconsin tribe during the first six months of 2007.

WisPolitics reports that Wisconsin tribes spent a total of $480,000 lobbying the federal government between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year. The Potawatomi were responsible for 63 percent of that – a whopping $300,000!

We’ve already told you about the $200,000 the Potawatomi paid D.C. powerbroker Ed Gillespie and others to carry the tribe’s pro-monopoly message in the Nation’s Capital. Additional documents now disclose a third-heavy hitting firm (and another $100K payment) on the Potawatomi’s D.C. lobbying roster.

The reports, filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate, reveal that the Potawatomi paid for the services of two lobbyists from the big-namee firm of Barbour Griffith & Rogers.

Those lobbyists include the firm’s president, a well-known Republican operative who served as chief of staff for a former Wisconsin Governor and Cabinet member. (Ironically, his former boss signed the Menominee Tribe’s 2000 Compact with the State of Wisconsin – the document authorizing the establishment of a Menominee casino in Kenosha in the first place.) The other is the firm’s vice president, another Republican insider who has served in several high-level White House positions and as chief of staff to a former Cabinet member.

While Potawatomi’s other hired guns went so far as to reach into the Executive Office of the President (!), the new reports show BGR’s lobbyists focused their attention on the U.S. House of Representatives and the Department of the Interior (the agency currently reviewing the Kenosha casino proposal). Their subject matter is listed only as “Tribal Interests.” Of course, we all know that Potawatomi’s biggest interest is in sidestepping competition and preserving the monopoly of their off-reservation Milwaukee casino – even if they have to change the law or curry favor among federal officials to do so.

BGR’s folks are no amateurs. Other BGR clients include international (and deep-pocketed) giants like IBM, Lockheed Martin, Louis Vuitton – Moët Hennesy, Pfizer…even the Republic of India and the State of Qatar. Their Web site touts the firm’s expertise at “stopping or changing harmful policy before it can take effect,” and Potawatomi’s leaders seem to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to thwarting what they see as a harmful threat to their monopoly.

We’re sure there’s more to come – and you can be sure we’ll bring it to you.

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