Janna Ryan, Paul Ryan's Wife, Lobbied For Cigar, Nuclear, Pharmaceutical Industries

[bananas]

Source: Huffington Post

Janna Ryan was introduced to America on Saturday as a stay-at-home mom who has raised three children while her husband, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), built a career in Washington.

But the wife of Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick spent a decade in Washington herself, first as a congressional aide and then as a corporate lobbyist, whose clients included the cigar industry, a logging company, drugmakers, the health insurance industry and a nuclear power plant.

<snip>

Her client roster reads like a who's who of some of America's most politically polarizing corporate interests. Drug industry clients included the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Alliance (PhRMA), Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Novartis. Oil industry clients included Conoco and Marathon Oil. Big health insurance companies Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cigna were also on the list.

<snip>

Ryan and Rafianello also represented the Vermont Yankee Corp., a nuclear power plant, on "nuclear waste issues," according to federal lobbying registration forms. The company paid $180,000 over three years between 1998 and 2000, while Vermont Yankee was being sold; its owners hoped more favorable tax laws would make it more attractive to buyers.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/janna-ryan-paul-ryan-wife_n_1774265.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. Meh. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

It sounds like she is indeed a stay-at-home mom raising the kids. What she did before the kids, before marrying Ryan, was just a career. A congressional aide becoming a lobbyist? Is this unusual?

Unless she was breaking the law, this seems like a non-issue. Not all of us get to choose our clients, or our employers. Some of us have to work for someone who says "you're hired!". Even if the company is not green, not liberal, not politically correct.

[Roy Rolling]

3. Not unusual

But disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff said his most effective strategy was to offer Congressional aides jobs as lobbyists as part of his attempt to curry favor.

It is not unusual, but it is the poster-child of what is wrong with money influincing legislator's votes. It's not the clients that are the issue, it is the methodology of special interests.

[heaven05]

4. exactly

[wordpix]

5. no it's not a "non-issue" - some people promote corpos making unhealthy products/dangerous energy

Ms. Ryan is one of those. There are plenty of people in DC who work for the common good, just like O used his law degree as a community activist in Chicago helping the poor.

She is NOT one of those.

[blake87]

2. perfect couple

Wow, cigar industry... they were made for each other

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. She was raised in Madill, Oklahoma and is related to

a serving Democratic Congressional Representative, Dan Boren. Boren's parents are Janna Lou Little Boren and David Boren, former Oklahoma governor and senator and current President of the University of Oklahoma. Janna Lou Little Boren’s father is Reuel Little, from Madill, Oklahoma.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/08/janna-ryan-spotlight-paul-ryan-vice-president-/1

[Tx4obama]

7. Kick! n/t