Brewed Fresh Daily

Organizational analysis expert Valdis Krebs comments, "If Mark Lombardi were alive today, he would probably start a new network drawing with this info.

"Among Ohio's powerful electric utilities, Akron's FirstEnergy Corp. generates the most political juice. When state legislation threatened its financial health, the firm hired a state senator, a former Ohio House speaker and the governor's top aide. For help with federal bills and regulations, it employs lobbyists whose previous bosses were U.S. presidents and heads of agencies that oversee the regulators. It ranks sixth nationally in money spent by utilities on lobbyists. And its executives - from the CEO to in-house lawyers - have opened their wallets to politicians from Toledo City Council to the White House. Twenty-five executives have contributed a total of $33,500 to President Bush's re-election campaign so far, according to Political Money Line, a database service that tracks money in politics."

Valdis recently conducted a tour of MOCA's exhibit of Mark Lombardi's drawings that illustrate the connectedness of the players involved in the major political and financial scandals in recent history. BFD recommends you pre-order a copy of Mark Lombardi: Global Networks