Who is Elliot Berke?

A couple of days ago, I looked at a recent filing in Teltschik v. Williams and Jensen, et. al.. Lawyers for Corwin Teltschik provided us with a list of 13 people who may have relevant information in this case. Several names were not familiar to me, but I am most interested in just two: Elliot Berke and Dan Flynn. I want to learn more about these two, and even though I had previously suggested I was more interested in Dan Flynn, I'd like to start with Elliot Berke.

Mr. Berke was a member of Tom DeLay's "war room" team in or around April 2005:

The team — which includes DeLay Chief of Staff Tim Berry, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Flynn, Communications Director Dan Allen, general counsel Elliot Berkes [sic] and policy adviser Brett Shogren — holds a 7:30 a.m. conference call with aides from the Speaker’s office, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) to discuss daily media coverage of DeLay. His aides then hold their own meeting in DeLay’s first-floor Capitol office to discuss message strategy for the day.

I'll get back to events going on during this time period in a later post. As I've already indicated, I want to learn more about Elliot Berke.

We already know Mr. Berke was general counsel to Tom DeLay's leadership office. After Mr. DeLay left Congress, Mr. Berke softly landed as counsel to then House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Mr. Berke served in this capacity as the former Speaker did nothing in the Mark Foley mini-scandal. After the disastrous 2006 midterm elections, Mr. Berke left the office of Speaker Hastert to join a GOP lobbying practice:

Also leaving the Hill is Elliot S. Berke, most recently counsel to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who has signed up with GOP lobby shop Barbour Griffith & Rogers as general counsel. He will focus on advising clients and the firm on such issues as foreign agent registration, lobbying disclosure and campaign finance issues.

Mr. Berke has since hung his own shingle (Berke & Associates PLLC), but for a time, he had a boss with a very familiar name. The Atlantic seems to report that as recently as January 2008, Mr. Berke worked for a firm called McGahn & Associates. Who is McGahn? Any guesses? Any guesses?

For what it is worth, here is a list of Mr. Berke's campaign contributions in 2008. I want you to notice two things:

1. It appears that Berke & Associates was founded somewhere between April and June 2008. Drawing an inference here, but I think that Mr. Berke was an employee of Don McGahn until the spring of 2008.

2. Hey! Mr. Berke contributed to a Congressional candidate right here in TX22! That's right, Mr. Berke has contributed to Pete Olson's campaign. Why does Pete Olson have to smell so much like Tom DeLay?

I have so much I'd like to write about, but I really must make another post speculating on the role of Mr. Berke (and Mr. Flynn for that matter) when it comes to Teltschik v. Williams & Jensen et. al. I promise that post will be easier to read ... it can't be any worse than this one. Stay tuned.