Amid the sea of individuals actively involved in National Poker Week was Mickey Leibner, a lobbyist for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Leibner sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss lobbying for the legalization and regulation of online poker in the United States.
Poker News Daily: How did you become involved with lobbying on behalf of the PPA?
Leibner: I work with former Congressman Toby Moffett and have been lobbying on behalf of the PPA since the fall of 2007. Our policy is that we won’t lobby for any causes we don’t believe in. We want to go to Capitol Hill with clients who have a good story to tell. The PPA and the poker world have a great story to tell. It’s a message of personal freedoms.
PND: You mentioned personal freedoms. Does that resonate with Congressmen when you lobby about the issue?
Leibner: It does resonate. One of the interesting things about this issue is that it truly resonates across the aisle – Democrats and Republicans. I personally am a big-time Democrat, but there are people we meet with on both sides of the aisle that like this issue for different reasons.
PND: What’s an average day for a lobbyist?
Leibner: We do a lot of preparation, like crafting memos for staff and gathering the most relevant information on an issue. What we do is based on our knowledge of a particular Congressman, district, office, or staff member – We tend to tailor what we say so it will have the greatest effect. You want to make sure that you’re using the right arguments with a rural Republican Representative and those are probably different arguments than you’d use with an urban Democrat, for example.
PND: You told us earlier that your firm also lobbies on behalf of environmental issues and other efforts. Is it difficult juggling several different commitments?
Leibner: It’s not necessarily hard and it keeps it interesting. I actually like it because every day is a little bit different. I can wake up every morning knowing that everything I’m doing is something I can get behind and feel good about. That makes a big difference.
PND: How did you begin your lobbying career?
Leibner: I’ve been politically involved for a while. I graduated from college and really didn’t know what I was going to do. I wanted to be in politics. I focused a lot in college on the intersection of technology and politics, so I wrote a thesis on the world of blogs. I was looking at a number of non-profits and organizations outside of the government and I happened to get in with Toby Moffett. It’s neat because the poker issue allows me to work on the intersection of technology and politics.
PND: What is your forecast for the future of internet gambling legislation in the United States in 2009 and 2010?
Leibner: We’re very hopeful and we’re very confident that we can get these laws passed. We have a lot of powerful people on our side, including Barney Frank, who is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. It just so happens that we’re in the midst of the biggest financial crisis in the past few decades. We’re confident that our message is getting through.
We hope that HR 2266, which is the bill to delay the implementation of the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) by one year – We’re hopeful that we can get something done on that as soon as we get back from the August recess. That’s the plan. Tell your readers that we’re out there every day and trying to bust our butts to get this done. We’re pretty confident and feel better than we did a year ago at this time.
The scum Republicans are to blame, who make up the psychopathic portion of the population. The Republicans preach personal freedom, then right bills to take freedom away. Republicans are liars and cowards, and if given the chance, they will infantilize everyone, for their own selfish, childish needs. The reason Republicans are against gay marriage, drug use, and online gambling, is because they-themselves are weak and lack self-control, so they need to psychologically project onto others by making legislation to lower everyone to their own lowly level of existence so this small minority can be confortable at the cost of suffering, lack of freedom and human rights for all. Republicans are dogs, psychopaths and are eazily out debated on all conservative issues. Conservatism is the failing ideology of history.
You are so right! like the freedom to choose my own health care, or to have my input as to whether I want my tax dollars to be used on a stimulus bill that will not help our economy, or how much nicotine is in my cigarette. Oh wait, that is the democrats who are taking away those freedoms.
I am a republican, I am a poker player, and though this was stuck into a bill in a completely ridiculous way, both sides are to blame when talking about taking away freedoms, and both sides “sneak” things into bills. For example – a 330 million dollar check to Microsoft in order to build a bridge from one section of their company to another, or how bout a trail for turtles to cross under a freeway in Florida, (both are found within the stimulus bill, by Nancy Pelosi herself!).
Ask how these things “stimulate” the economy.
Some more examples will be posted below, but in the future, before you make accusations about Republicans about a specific problem, make sure the democrats are not doing the same.
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http://www.porkulus.org/node?page=1
Porkulus Funded Florida Bridge Draws Criticism
Posted Tue, 05/05/2009 – 05:51 by Allen Gwinn
STUART, Florida (CNN) — The most expensive item on Florida’s list of economic stimulus projects is drawing fire from some residents and at least one public official, all questioning whether it’s needed at all.
Some residents say it’s wasteful to spend money on a new bridge when there’s one less than three miles away.
Some residents say it’s wasteful to spend money on a new bridge when there’s one less than three miles away.
The proposed $128 million Indian Street Bridge across the St. Lucie River has been debated in Martin County, Florida, for more than 20 years. But now that it has been cleared to receive money from the federal government’s nearly $800 billion economic stimulus effort, the debate may be over.
“The president should know that this is a boondoggle, and he is getting swindled,” said Odias Smith, who has been fighting the bridge for decades and is suing the state Department of Transportation to try to stop it.
Pork to Go For Anti-Suicide Fence in Ohio
Posted Fri, 03/27/2009 – 13:06 by Allen Gwinn
Too many folks, it seems, are jumping off bridges in Akron to their deaths. So some of the “stimulus” money is being used to build fences to stop this tragic trend.
Read the Story at Ohio.Com