Just when the WGA strike is thisclose to winding down, producers at the AMPTP go and hire big-gun D.C. operatives Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani, of the left-leaning consulting shop Fabiani & Lehane, and veteran Republican bag-man Steve Schmidt, of Mercury Public Affairs. But in the arena of public opinion, where the studios have been cast as greedy overlords, hiring pricey political flacks might actually backfire.

Fabiani and Lehane cut their teeth working for Al Gore and Bill Clinton (in his capacity as Gore's campaign spokesman, Lehane famously called Katherine Harris a "hack" and "a commissar" during the 2000 Florida recount). Or as Matt Stoler of Open Left blog puts it, "Lehane is a longtime Clinton surrogate," concluding, "Strike breaking is not okay. Clinton knows this. And that's why she should sever all ties with Lehane and Fabiani and put out a statement announcing this."

Since entering the private sector, the pair has been dogged by controversy and have managed to alienate a fair-share of D.C. power brokers. In 2001, they were forced to stop advising former California Governor Gray Davis about how to spin California's energy crisis after it came out that the pair had previously flacked for Southern California Edison. In late-2003, John Kerry axed the combative duo before the presidential primaries in order to refocus and re-energize his campaign, only to have Lehane—an expert in what an unnamed colleague called "the political black arts" in a New York Times article—allegedly hit back at his former boss by telling Matt Drudge that Kerry was sleeping with an intern, an allegation later found to be baseless.

In recent years, Fabiani, who helped the Clinton White House spin the Whitewater investigation, raised eyebrows in D.C.'s liberal establishment by helping San Diego Chargers' owner and right-wing power-broker Alex Spanos secure funding for a new stadium.

Schmidt—a disciple of Karl Rove—shepherded Sam Alito and John Roberts through their Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and oversaw the so-called "murder boards" that helped prepare the judges for the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's also helping steer John McCain's 2008 White House bid.

Serving as AMPTP hit men, however, would hardly be the first foray into Hollywood for any of these men. Lehane and Fabiani were brought in by Harvey Weinstein to temper pre-release controversy surrounding Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko. Schmidt, for his part, managed Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 reelection campaign.