Podesta, Livingston Look for Balance, Brawn in New Partnership

Podesta, who was interviewed before the death last Friday of his mother, Mary Podesta-- a fixture in the kitchen of Podesta fundraisers -- said opportunities are many for the new venture. Hot issues such as global warming to subprime lending mean that "there are a lot of fish to fry," he said.

Fixing Congress's E-Mail Woes

Studies have shown that lawmakers often ignore and sometimes do not even receive e-mails ginned up by interest groups. Deluged with thousands of essentially identical electronic messages, congressional offices are constantly trying to make it harder for organizations to blast them out.

Now Neil Hare, a former vice president of communications at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has devised a way around the problem. He just started ISupportThisMessage.com, a Web site that solicits citizens' opinions on political and legislative issues and promises to deliver the results -- on paper -- to every lawmaker's office.

Visitors to the site are invited to "vote" on a variety of issues such as child hunger and presidential candidates. The numbers are tallied and comments compiled for later distribution on Capitol Hill.

"This is a reaction to the failure of e-mailing," Hare said. "We will issue regular reports with our numbers and, over time, Hill staffers will be able to log on and see the results themselves." He said that lobby groups can buy their own spaces on the site for far less than full-blown grass-roots campaigns.

A Life-Affirming Lobbying Victory

Last week, the House passed a bill that would make it easier for living organ donors to give away a kidney. The legislation removes an uncertainty in the law that has prevented thousands of sick people from receiving kidneys from non-family members.

A slew of organ donation advocates such as the National Kidney Foundation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Society of Transplantation pushed the legislation. But it moved to the top of the heap because of two lawmakers, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and the late Rep. Charles Whitlow Norwood Jr. (R-Ga.), for whom the bill is named.

Norwood, a dentist who died Feb. 13 after a long battle with cancer and lung disease, wrote a letter to Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.) the day he left Washington to convalesce at home in Georgia. His primary request in that letter was that the kidney bill, which he co-sponsored with Inslee, become law.

Barton, Inslee and many of Norwood's other colleagues were eager to comply, Inslee in particular. The week before the House acted, Inslee's mother, Adele Inslee, died at age 78 of complications from kidney disease.

Send e-mail tokstreet@washpost.com.