Got a nasty fight? Here's your man (USA Today)

[Omaha Steve]

Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2006-07-31-lobbyist-usat_x.htm

By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A longtime labor union official calls him Dr. Evil. The director of a consumer group says he's "sleazy" and "sophomoric." And a liberal newspaper columnist wrote that the tobacco, booze and gun lobbyists portrayed in the movie Thank You for Smoking were a "pale imitation of the reality of the Beltway's most outrageous advocate."

Even in this mudslinging city, it's hard to find a guy who provokes the sort of wrath Richard Berman does.


Companies hire Richard Berman to be their public faceas they take on what are sure to be unpopular battles.

BERMAN'S TAKE: What the lobbyist has to say on mad cow disease, more

Berman, hired by businesses, fights efforts such as further restricting drinking and driving, mandating healthier foods and raising the minimum wage. The former labor relations lawyer argues that many of the restrictions reduce our ability to make our own choices.

He seldom mentions his clients, other than to say many are in the food and restaurant industries, and he represents them through a variety of non-profit groups he has set up. His targets range from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to the Ralph Nader-founded Center for Science in the Public Interest, which works on food issues, to labor unions.

Berman is the best, and apparently most hated, example of a third party hired by companies to be their public face as they take on unpopular battles.

Berman says the consumer, safety and environmental groups he targets rarely attract the kind of scrutiny that business does, and that's not fair. "Some of these companies are so shell-shocked by the attacks that they can't find the voice to fight back," he says.

"Some of the positions Rick takes, he's better off taking than a highly visible public company," says Dick Rivera, former CEO of the restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's, who has worked with Berman for 30 years.