Why Greenlight Strategies? The short story is that in my decades in Washington I repeatedly hear why something can't be done. There are a lot of people willing to throw red lights in your path. Regardless of your political leanings you should not be satisfied with the current status quo in Washington, D.C.

Greenlight Strategies exists to help you find the road forward and, utilizing our experience and connections, to facilitate the solution.

The longer story involves a tale my color-blind Dad of Irish descent used to love to tell of the city he spent a lot of his life in. The story is of the upside down traffic light at Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York. Tipperary Hill, also known as Tipp Hill, is a district in the city of Syracuse, New York, largely settled by immigrants from Ireland, especially from County Tipperary.

In the 1820s, the Irish where the chief laborers when the Erie Canal was built from Albany to Buffalo.  After the canal was finished, many Irish people settled west of Syracuse on a hill overlooking the canal. This area became known as Tipperary Hill.

The story goes that in 1925 the city put up a new traffic signal with the green light on top, a salute to the Irish.
 

John "Huckle" Ryan, then alderman of the Tipperary Hill section, requested that the traffic signal be hung with the green above the red in deference to the Irish residents. This was done, but soon the State of New York stepped in (state law dictates that traffic signals must follow the same sequence to avoid confusing the color-blind), and city officials reversed the colors.

The folks on Tipperary Hill were told it could not be changed.
 
Irish youth were still inflamed from the political tension from the 1921 Irish War of Independence with Britain. They often threw stones to break the "British" red top light above the "Irish" green, to prevent “red over green.” To them, red on top represented Britain having greater importance than Ireland.
 
Eventually, city leaders wore down. Tipperary Hill received the only traffic light in the nation where the green shines over red.
 
The greenlight represents the spirit of defiance and of not accepting the existing state of affairs. While we don’t condone vandalism – we applaud the spirit of those stone throwers and embrace their defiance of the status quo.

Tom McClusky has a long history of both local and national campaign experience. After stints with the Republican National Committee and with the multi-billion dollar Coastal Corporation in its Washington, D.C. office, he became Senior Policy Analyst for National Taxpayers Union and National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTU/NTUF) where he was responsible for the formulation of policy analyses, reports, and editorials for NTU and NTUF on numerous topics.

After working for Big Oil and a stint with the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Mr. McClusky sought to work on less controversial subjects as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for the Family Research Council (FRC) and FRC Action, the legislative arm of FRC. In that role he lobbied Congress and state legislatures on issues related to life, marriage and religious liberty. Mr. McClusky followed FRC (where he avoided gunfire - literally!) by helping to establish a legislative arm for the historic March for Life. He has been named repeatedly by The Hill newspaper as one of the top grassroots lobbyists in D.C. (most recently the last six years straight).

He is currently principal for Greenlight Strategies, LLC where he represents conservative, freedom and health care interests on Capitol Hill.

He has appeared on many radio and television talk shows, and his works have appeared in numerous publications, however his proudest media claim to fame is Keith Olbermann once named him the "Worst Person in the World" for work he did in relation to the Terri Schiavo case.