Cokie Roberts' brother Tommy Boggs, watches money walk out the door, but DOESN'T cry

Sunday December 2nd, 2007 5:30 p.m.

So, were you one of the countless people across South Florida this morning actually looking forward to the Dolphins-Jets game at Chez Huizenga this afternoon, thinking that there was no way a winless Dolphin season could get immeasurably worse?
Well, welcome to your nightmare: getting spanked at home by the Jets 40-13 -in throwback unis no less- before a stadium full of the kind of Jets fans that America has come to hate from coast-to-coast.
You're now an 0-12 team after being swept at home by a hated arch-rival that was, after all, the 2nd worst team in the NFL.

Now your immediate future includes visiting a hard-hitting Buffalo team in December next week, a team that just perservered and defeated a dispirited Redskin team on a last-second field goal.
The Bills are the last team you scored an offensive TD against -three long weeks ago.

You then you play host to perhaps the only team in the NFL even close to being as offensively-challenged as your own team in scoring points, Brian Billick's punchless Baltimore Ravens.
I've followed and rooted for the Ravens since they moved to Baltimore -except when they play the Dolphins.
The final there could well be 12-9, and is one that CBS-TV will probably only telecast in two TV media markets -theirs and ours- fearful of otherwise scaring away potential viewers for their powerful Sunday night program lineup.

Then, you're up in cold and perhaps snowy Foxboro, two days before Christmas, as the Patriots try to nail the 15th nail of their undefeated season.
Sportswriters, because it's what they do, will remind you that even when the Dolphins were
good, you had a bad record in cold weather. That hasn't changed.
And you already know from the first Dolphins-Patriots game of the year that Tom Brady will go back into the game, regardless of the large Patriots lead, if back-up QB Matt Castle looks shaky out there.
As for the predictable sports talk radio nonsense that will speak of it setting up to be a classic "trap game," because the Patriots will be looking ahead to their game at the Giants to conclude their regular season, forget about it. That won't happen.

Finally, you conclude the season at home, before perhaps a half-filled stadium, against the talented-but-troubled Cincinnati Bengals, as they try to win a game for soon-to-be-fired head coach Marvin Lewis.

As of today, I think the Dolphins only real chance to win a game this year is that last game against the Bengals, when there will be more media coverage of that game, because of the winless aspect, than any other, save the Patriots at Giants game I referred to, for a Pats perfect regular season.
But that could easily be a blow-out at half-time if the offensive woes continue unabated, and Ocho-Cinco goes wild.

If the Dolphins do indeed go winless, let's all hope the writers strike in Hollywood isn't over, so we won't have to see pop culture references to the Dolphins on cable and late night TV shows ad nauseum.
That's when it'll REALLY sink in.


Meanwhile... SBH was looking for something online during halftime of the Dolphins-Jets game
and happened to come across this great nugget -a preview of tomorrow's news today!
Or more of the very same bad weather.
It was in a great publication I devoutly read when I was living in Washington for 15 years in Legal Times.
See http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/index.jsp and
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2007/11/breaking-news-b.html

So, "Whatever happened to lobbying reform?" he asked rhetorically.

When you go to the Legal Times webpage, instead of seeing:
"Bayou State Buddies: Tommy Boggs Jr. and John Breaux were a potent combo for Patton Boggs. Now Breaux is leaving to form his own firm with son John Jr.

NEWS SPOTLIGHT
K Street Mulls a Possible Lott-Breaux Combo
By Carrie Levine
Patton Boggs loses heavyweight John Breaux, who is opening a shop with his son. Will Trent Lott be joining them soon?"
Breaux to Launch Father-Son Venture

just picture the photo caption actually reading:

Tommy Boggs, the man whose name is never to be uttered on ABC News, who makes a ton lobbying for Saudi Arabia, Microsoft and the American Bankers Association among others, for a firm whose name is also never to be mentioned on ABC News, -esp. in discussing lobbying excesses and reform on a certain Sunday morning chat show- watches as some future profit participation point$ walk out the door to form a new lobbying shop under the pretense of maintaining 'family relations.'

Now that's spin!!!

My question for you though is this: when will a TV campaign debate host/moderator actually ask a tough question about Washington lobbying and its corrosive effects?
In the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff scandal, everyone in the media 'talked the talk' about getting better coverage of it, blah, blah... What happened?
Did they already forget?

Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill rush to K Street $$$ continues, as Margart Carlson opines here:
Poor Lott can't wait to make his millions
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/341817_carlsononline02.html

And in case you didn't already know, Tommy -shocker- is for Hillary Clinton.