Google’s big name lobbyist

Google increasingly finds itself under scrutiny from lawmakers in Washington. Now it is hoping that a former lawmaker will help out on that front. The company announced on Thursday that it had hired Susan Molinari, the former Republican congresswoman from New York, as its Washington lobbyist, Eric Lichtblau reports on the Caucus blog. A lobbyist since 1999, Ms. Molinari replaces Alan Davidson, who announced last year that he was leaving Google after building its Washington lobbying shop into an influential $11 million-a-year operation. Google has moved more aggressively in recent years to shape legislation that affect its search engine and Internet businesses. Like many corporations, it has looked to strengthen its Republican ties since the party took over control of the House last year. Talking Points Memo noted that Google was facing pressure from politicians and regulators over a big change to its privacy policies that goes into effect March 1. Google is consolidating user information and privacy policies from its various services like YouTube and Gmail. “The Google office in Washington has not had someone with the visibility of a former member of Congress, and with her understanding of the complexities of the legislative process,” John Sununu, who served in the House at the same time as Ms. Molinari