Comcast's Biggest Lobbyist Dodges Lobbying Rules By Pretending He's Usually Not Lobbying

[Commentary] Comcast’s David Cohen is a lobbyist in all the ways you'd expect a lobbyist to be, from hob knobbing with regulators and fund raising for President Barack Obama, to penning a litany of awful editorials about bad policy in papers nationwide.

Every month or so Cohen can be found busily pretending the US broadband market is competitive, or pretending that the United States' mediocre showing in every meaningful global broadband stat actually means we're leading the world at broadband. Yet despite spending the lion's share of his time lobbying, Cohen doesn't have to follow the disclosure rules for lobbyists -- and hasn't since 2007 -- because he's able to simply pretend he doesn't spend much time lobbying, by asserting that he spends less than 20 percent of his time lobbying, thereby disqualifying him from the title.

By technically not being a lobbyist while being a very obvious lobbyist, Cohen is also allowed to dance around Obama's rules prohibiting lobbyists from having close ties to the Administration.

[March 7]