Facebook is hoping to do something better and faster than any other technology start-up-turned-Internet superpower.

Befriend Washington.

Facebook has layered its executive, legal, policy and communications ranks with high-powered politicos from both parties, beefing up its firepower for future battles in Washington and beyond. There’s Sheryl Sandberg, the former Clinton administration official who is chief operating officer, and Ted Ullyot, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who is general counsel, among others. The latest candidate is Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s former White House press secretary, whom Facebook is trying to lure to its communications team.

With good reason, political and legal analysts say. Barely seven years after it was born in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook, as much as any other company, is redefining the notion of privacy and transforming communications, media and advertising in the Internet age.

While the company has come under fire for a series of privacy stumbles, it largely remains a darling of politicians — even earning a glowing mention in the State of the Union. But Facebook has watched the missteps of Microsoft and Google in Washington, and knows that its current skirmishes are merely a prelude to looming clashes over its influence on the economic and social Web. And so it is building a stalwart defense, moving at broadband speed from start-up to realpolitik strategist.