Washington, D.C. – Turnout was good this week for a legislative conference organized by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, a trade group. But as they took in cherry blossoms and sunny weather in Washington, hotel execs weren’t treated to a favorable political outlook.

“Under the usual rules of political gravity, we Republicans are cooked,” said Michael Murphy, founding principal of government relations outfit DC Navigators, on Monday. “In the House and Senate, it’s going to be bad for Republicans.”

Tuesday, Republican Congressman Ric Keller, whose district includes Orlando, Fla. told the hotel crowd that the upcoming election will be determined by independent voters. “I don’t know how independents are going to feel about Iraq six months from now,” he added, “but right now they’re not too crazy about it.”

Not all hoteliers are conservative, of course, but the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) tends to lean that way. And any erosion of the Republican minority could prove a setback for hotel operators, namely on labor issues.

Full story at Forbes.com

Washington, D.C. – In a shaky market, hospital stocks have lagged as a group. The seven in the table below trade an average of 28% off their 52-week highs, versus an equivalent decline of 14% for the S&P 500 index.

Yet, while it sputters in the marketplace, the hospital business remains well-oiled inside the beltway.

“Everyone knows the hospitals have been struggling for years with bad debt, with the uninsured, with reimbursement issues, with being squeezed by managed-care companies and so on,” says Michael Wiederhorn, executive director and equity analyst at Oppenheimer. “Republican, Democrat–no one wants to see the hospitals struggle or wants to take money away [from them].”

The mood this week has been suitably upbeat at the annual membership meeting in Washington of the American Hospital Association (AHA), an advocacy group. A brass band greeted hundreds of hospital execs as they filed into a hotel ballroom for a legislative briefing Monday. Like a ballgame, the morning session opened with the national anthem and cheers.

“The turnout for this annual meeting, our 39th, is terrific,” said American Hospital Association Chief Richard Umbdenstock. Good thing for him: Wednesday, he’s sending attendees (1,700 registered) to Capitol Hill to hit up legislators on AHA’s top priorities.

Full story at Forbes.com

Washington, D.C. – Advanced Micro Devices, the Sunnyvale, Calif., semiconductor concern, is in town this week for FOSE, an annual public-sector technology trade show that attracts 20,000 buyers, sellers and hanger-ons to the nation’s capital. At exhibition booths, breakfast speeches and in its own sponsored meeting room, AMD is making its case before the Beltway crowd.

In doing so, AMD (nyse: AMD – news – people ) certainly can’t tout its recent stock market performance. The company’s shares have slumped 62% from a 52-week high, versus a 14% decline in the S&P 500 index. At six bucks, AMD goes for 0.6 times sales–less than one-fifth the 3.3 price-to-sales multiple for shares of bigger rival Intel (nasdaq: INTC – news – people ).

AMD shareholders have been suffering for some time; two years ago the stock stood at $43. Will it rebound to those heights? We haven’t a clue. But we can say that AMD’s success in the public sector provides some support for the case made by AMD bulls.

Full story at Forbes.com