Joe M Allbaugh

Joe Allbaugh is not your typical Washington lobbyist, yet he has a pedigree that almost any lobbyist would die for. A blunt Oklahoma wheat farmer, Allbaugh, 51, managed George W. Bush's successful 1994 gubernatorial campaign in Texas and was his chief of staff for the next four years. He followed that as manager of the Bush/Cheney presidential campaign. After 2000, Allbaugh could have slipped into an influential job at the White House. Instead, he became President Bush's first head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Allbaugh stands out in Washington, if only for his physical appearance: He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and wears his hair in a flattop. He made headlines in 2003 not for his lobby shop, but for co-founding New Bridge Strategies-"a unique company created specifically . . . [to] take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East," as its Web site puts it. Critics say Allbaugh is taking advantage of his close relationship with the administration. Allbaugh says it's a brouhaha over nothing.