Blackwater has hired North Carolina's biggest and most powerful law firm as its new lobbyist in Washington.
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice has signed up 5 lobbyists to work for Blackwater, including Jimmy Broughton, former chief of staff for archconservative Sen. Jesse Helms; Mark Harkins, former chief of staff for Rep. Brad Miller, a liberal Democrat; and John Mashburn, former general counsel for Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
The lobbyists will have plenty of work: Blackwater relies on the U.S. government for more than 90 percent of its revenue. Blackwater is under investigation for the Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilian dead. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been digging into Blackwater's finances and conduct in Iraq and elsewhere.
Womble's mascot is Winston the Bulldog. Hopefully Winston will get along better with Blackwater than the New York Times dog.
Joseph Neff has reported extensively on Blackwater since 2004, when his series, "The Bridge," chronicled the death of four of the company's contractors in Iraq. His subsequent reporting has revealed more about the events of that day as well as the multi-layered contracts that add millions to the cost of running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
