This item, penned by Roll Call's Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton, has a lighthearted tone, but it underscores that alcohol distributors, as we noted here http://www.forbes.com/businessinthebeltway/2006/05/08/beer-tradegroup-lobby-cx_atg_0509beer.html a few years back, are a serious force inside the Beltway. The legislation passed last week lauds legal liquor's generation of "billions of dollars in Federal and Sales tax revenues" annually. With the red ink flood in Washington, maybe legal pot will get a harder look from Congress.
