Wampum

My bud Julia has a detailed post on the unraveling of Santorum and the K-Street Project.

One of the things I found interesting in my wading through the Greenberg Traurig lobbying disclosures was that the Washington office's founder, Harold Vine, surprisingly left the office (and his clients) in early 2003 (at the height of Abramoff's influence) to join another firm. So who is Howard Vine? According to his bio at his new firm of Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oskinsky (on "L Street", not "K")

Howard Vine joined Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP as a partner in the Legislative & Regulatory Affairs Group in February 2003. He focuses his practice on counseling clients in government decision making, and providing creative solutions to traditional Washington problems.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Over a 25-year career in government relations law, Mr. Vine has represented clients in a diverse range of Congressional and regulatory matters affecting federal securities law, international trade rights and remedies, medical reimbursement rates, electricity competition and associated products, and federal taxation policy and municipal appropriations.

Mr. Vine joined Dickstein Shapiro from Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where he was the founder and former managing shareholder of the firm's Washington, DC office. As a member of Greenberg Traurig's Government Affairs practice, he focused on governmental and administrative law, international trade, federal appropriations, health care, tax, antitrust, securities, and corporate governance matters. He successfully led a business coalition in its challenge to USDA proposed regulations attempting to levy an import license on sugar, secured federal funding for the State of Florida Citrus Canker eradication program, managed and negotiated the settlement of the trade conflict between tomato growers in the United States and Mexico, wrote anti-circumvention legislation in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1998; and produced results for an array of clients with discrete interests before the federal government.

Prior to his association with Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Mr. Vine was the senior vice president and Director of International Trade and head of business development for the lobbying firm The Jefferson Group. He was a Senior Associate at the Washington branch of the Ohio law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and also spent six years as an assistant vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Mr. Vine chaired the Clinton/Gore transition team, which wrote the administration's briefing book on the Council of Economic Advisers. Additionally, he was a member of the American Bar Association's Ad Hoc Task Force on the Federal Criminal Code, and the past chairman and member of the Subcommittee on SEC Administration, Budget, and Legislation. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Jewish Democratic Council. He also serves as a member of the Executive Council of the Policy Roundtable of the Democratic Leadership Council.

He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Virginia.

So how may other Democratic Howard Vines are out there, booted off K Street?