Health care watch: White House visitor logs

By GottaLaff

The White House had visitors, as the logs reveal, and they were talking health care reform:

Top aides to President Barack Obama met early and often with lobbyists, Democratic political strategists and other interests with a stake in the administration's national health care overhaul, White House visitor records obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press show. [...]

The records show a broad cross-section of the people most heavily involved in the health care debate, weighted heavily with those who want to overhaul the system.

Here are a few on the list:

• Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School, single payer advocate
• George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans
• Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assoc.
• Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist who represents Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among others
• Billy Tauzin, head of PhRMA
• Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Assoc.
• Laird Burnett, a top lobbyist for insurer Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
• Joshua Ackil, a lobbyist whose clients include Intel, U.S. Oncology Inc., and Knoa Software Inc.
• Alissa Fox, a lobbyist with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, met March 31 with Peter Orszag
• Mark Agrast, a lobbyist for the Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Amador "Dean" Aguillen, a former aide to Nancy Pelosi who is now with Ogilvy Government Relations, where he lobbies for clients including pharmaceutical companies
• Merribel Ayres, a lobbyist who appears to focus on environmental issues such as energy and climate change

There is much more information on these visitors and others here.

Obama Considers Adding "Celebrity Operatives"

By GottaLaff

Some familiar names are going to get even more familiar:

Mike Allen: "Some of the best-known names in Democratic politics -- Jenny Backus, Stephanie Cutter, Matthew Miller, Jennifer Palmieri and Howard Wolfson (alphabetical, guys) -- are being considered as public faces of the new administration in top communications roles outside the White House. Like the recruitment of Jay Carney, these celebrity operatives are a reminder that the Obama presidency is breaking all sorts of conventions, including the professional life cycle that so often takes hot strategists from public service to the private sector for good."

"We were told to add a speculative disclaimer at the top of this, so: This is what well-connected Dems are chattering about. It's not set in stone."

I wonder what well-connected Dems are connected to.