Clean Up On Aisle Fore
The PGA of America has quietly hired lobbyist Erik Winborn, who once prowled the halls of Congress of behalf of Wal-Mart, to work on its behalf in Washington, D.C. According to The Hill newspaper, Winborn said “industry professionals’’ have been worried that Congress doesn’t appreciate the jobs golf provides and that the sport has been the victim of negative publicity in the wake of a Justice Department investigation into lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and congressional staffers on a golf trip the group took to St. Andrews, Scotland.
Neither Winborn nor the PGA identified who these “industry officials’’ might be, but The Hill quoted Winborn as saying the PGA was particularly upset last year that golf course owners weren’t included in a tax break Congress passed to help victims of Hurricane Katrina recover. So upset, it seems, that it took the PGA the better part of a year to act.
Golf by the way, wasn’t the only industry left out of the bill. The casino and massage parlor industries also got the cold shoulder from Congress. Make up your own joke.