This company was founded by Haley Barbour — who was Reagan's White House Office of Political Affairs (1985-1987) and later chairman of the Republican National Committee ... then, would you believe ... the Governor of Missisiippi. So it is not surprising that BG&R is consistently listed as "one of the top 10 lobby firms in Washington ... and this gives you some idea of how much pollitical clout the other 9 might have!

In 2000 BG&R was sold to the super-conglomerate InterPublic Group, and at this time it was the largest and most profitable in Washington, It then became known as BGR Holdings LLC, which suggests that the original three partners might have retained some interest in the company (they continued to work for it) At this time Barbour was Governor of Mississippi and the other two were major contributors to the GOP. Three years after its sale, BGR Holdings was only the 7th largest Washington lobbyshop (2003) — possibly because Barbour was now pre-occupied with Mississippi state affairs.

Haley Barbour's main partners, Lanny (CO) Griffith and Ed Rogers had only slightly less political clout with Republican congressmen and state assemblymen than Barbour. Griffith managed Republican state campaigns in Mississippi (including Barbour's) and acted as campaign coordinator and fund-raiser for both Bush federal campaigns in the Southern States. He was made Assistant Secretary of Education (1991-93).

Ed Rogers was Deputy Assistant to President Bush in the first Bush Administration. An unnamed partner, Ed Gillespie, who was the tobacco industry's main contact, was also a former Republican Party chairman with strong links to Texas bagman/Congressman Dick Armery, New York's senator Alfonse D'Amato and mayor Rudolph Giuliani. They all work as lobbyists for Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.

BG&R has always been an indiscriminate lobbyshop in terms of who they represent, and they peddle their influence to Republican politicans at any political level up to the White House's Oval Office. The tobacco industry used their services extensively, as did many other P&P industries (especially Big Pharma) and companies like FedEx and Microsoft. When Barbour became president of the GOP he publically vowed to disconnect himself from the firm during his term in office, but he secretly maintained some control (although the firm had supposdly been 'merged').

This became obvious when the Justices Department became involved in enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It was revealed that BG&R were also promoting the interests of a number of countries in Washington, and they had become caught up in a scandal through acting for Swizerland in lobbying to block inquiries into "Swiss banking practices before, during and after World War II and relating to the Holocaust." This is a relic of the infamous hunt for Nazi gold (see "SafeHaven")

Barbour Griffith and Rogers gave $73,603 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its political action committee — all of it to Republicans. This is a minor cost when doing $11 million dollars of lobbying business.

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