Smart Sensuality Washington Lobbyist Heather Podesta Knows How to Work a Room

Top Washington lobbyist Heather Podesta isn’t following her own advice in these Washington Post photos. She once read one of those networking manuals and she took its advice to heart: Wear interesting clothing or jewelry to spark conversations; no matter where you are, pretend you’re the hostess.

Heather Podesta looks Smart Sensuality sophisticated and streamlined to me. Perhaps the jewelry comment is for Republican administrations. After all, Vermont’s Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy loves her.

Three gargantuan legislative challenges — health care, the environment and the economy — have converged on Capitol Hill to make this the Summer of Lobbyists, and Heather Podesta, with clients in several interest groups, works gatherings of well-connected friends such as this reception at the Hay-Adams Hotel. (Linda Davidson - The Washington Post) Podesta is described as being the ultimate Democratic strategist, a Smart Sensuality femme fatale not trying to be one of the guys. Not only do they love her for it; they reward her with big business, a 65 percent increase this year to $3.4 million.

Did I mention that Heather Podesta also does just fine with client the breast cancer group Susan G. Komen for the Cure and organizing a “kiss-ass women” luncheon at the Pakistani embassy?

Describing Heather Podesta, Washington Post writer Manuel Roig-Franzia pens the following: The lobbyist tango: She glides right in her red D&G heels and her periwinkle stockings, cutting through the outer rings with a smile here, a kiss-kiss there, a “Great to see you!” or two. Some guy yells out: “The most beautiful woman in the world!” She doesn’t blush, and she doesn’t linger. She wriggles left, gets blocked, reverses direction, gets blocked again, reverses direction again. She’s in.

(Photos By Linda Davidson — The Washington Post) With more than 12,500 registered lobbyists — about 23 for every member of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — Heather Podesta sounds like she’s among the most colorful, but also the best prepared, say clients.

In another WaPo tale about the colorful Heather Podesta, she decided to razz then candidate Obama about his ongoing diatribe against lobbyists at the Democratic convention. Going to great pains to find the perfect letter, Podesta wore a scarlet “L” affixed to her green Alberta Ferretti dress.

Read the in-depth story: Heather Podesta, a Storm in the Summer of the Lobbyist.