In The Northwest: An open letter to Dick 'Grass-roots' Cheney
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
P.O. Box 10729
Arlington, Va. 22210
Dear Dick:
Slogging home last week at the end of the wettest day in Seattle history, I reached into the mailbox and waiting for me, unexpectedly, was a letter from you. It brightened my day, especially the heart of its message:
"The President and I would be honored if you would become a Charter Member of Bush-Cheney '04 and would serve as one of our first key grass-roots leaders in Seattle, Washington."
Of course, Charter Membership carries responsibilities, hence your request for a "generous contribution" of as much as $1,000. It was flattering to hear from the vice president of the United States:
"Your grass-roots support of President Bush and me in the 2000 campaign and for other Republican candidates for many years marks you as a leader."
Naturally, I'll share those words with doubters like former GOP Sen. Slade Gorton, whose top aide was quoted by the Washington Post in 2000 identifying me (and a Seattle Times editorialist) as tools of the opposition.
At least you weren't fooled.
Still, if my support is, as you suggest, "especially critical," it's not inappropriate to ask what benefits are in it for me.
At last count, 43 of the Bush campaign's 2000 "Pioneers" -- folks who raised at least $100,000 -- have received federal appointments: 20 of them were named ambassadors. The least loved of former Seattle Mariner owners, George Argyros, is U.S. ambassador to Spain.
What is the price of a foreign posting and would it be in my range? A Pioneer in 2000, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., already is a 2004 "Ranger," having collected more than $200,000 for Bush-Cheney.
Jennifer is engaged to be wed to a dashing onetime Royal Air Force pilot, and is wearing a rock that would make Jennifer Lopez jealous. She shows a steadily lessening interest in Congress. It would seem, were Washington state to get an ambassadorship, Dunn would be the one.
At least 19 "Pioneers" and "Rangers" have prospered as Washington, D.C., lobbyists over the past year-and-a-half. Such work doesn't interest me. As you know, the town is impossibly humid in the summer. Hell, it's why you head out to Jackson, Wyo., and go trout fishing.
Another point: Others may be in a better position to give.
The Bechtel Corp. -- breeding ground and retirement haven for Republican Cabinet secretaries -- has received a $680 million non-bid contract to help rebuild Iraq.
Indeed, the energy services firm that you headed -- Halliburton Co. -- has been paid about $1.4 billion under a no-bid contract to repair Iraq's oil fields. Halliburton has generated $1.6 billion in revenue under a separate contract for logistical support in Iraq.
As well, the coal, gas, oil and nuclear industries stand to rake in as much as $18 billion in taxpayer subsidies under energy bills now before a House-Senate conference committee in Washington, D.C.
So-called "Clean Coal" technology would get a tax break for the first time, and the oil and chemical industries would be let off the hook for contaminating groundwater with the gasoline additive MTBE.
In 2000, the electric energy industry raised nearly $5 million for your campaign. The Energy Department transition team included an Edison Electric Institute executive as well as brass from three utilities sued by the Clinton administration for emissions from their coal-burning power plants.
Finally, Dick, we come to the thorny question of access.
A whole posse of these utility executives got to meet privately with the energy task force you chaired. The chairman of Enron -- the still unindicted "Kenny Boy" Lay -- had a private meeting with you.
It was Lay who recommended the guy who became chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
As can be recalled from discussions on the campaign trail -- your daughter, Mary, glared at me whenever I raised the topic -- we have different feelings about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
After rafting the Canning River -- the incredible wildlife stream that is the refuge's western boundary -- I don't want the place become a maze of haul roads and pipelines and drilling platforms. A Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, recognized the uniqueness and wholeness of the place, and created the refuge.
Would I, like Ken Lay, be able to get in? Maybe lay out a few slides from the Canning River and make a case for the critters?
If so, what size check or Pioneering is expected?
Dick, one other line from your letter moved me:
"Our goal must be to focus on results in our schools so that every child learns to read."
Where I live in Seattle, however, we've had to raise $30,000 out of our own pockets to put in a Spanish language program at our neighborhood public school.
While you write about everyone being able to "fully participate in the American Dream," the local Catholic archdiocese is taking donations to make rent and damage deposits for working families who cannot afford housing.
About 90,000 family-wage industrial jobs have been lost in this state since the start of 2001.
At last glance, Bush-Cheney '04 has raised $87.6 million -- almost as much as the $94 million collected up to the 2000 Republican convention.
I hear that this time Karl Rove has set a goal of $200 million.
Frankly, Dick, the money is coming in too easily for your own good.
Hence, let me suggest a character-building challenge.
A few blocks from your office in D.C., and around the corner from where I lived, is St. Paul's Episcopal Church. They're part of a citywide churches' program called Grate Patrol. Parishioners prepare breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings and distribute it to 200 homeless neighbors, many of whom sleep on grates.
If you donate to Grate Patrol, or give of your time, I'll match you dollar-for-dollar and hour for hour at a faith-based organization of your choosing. A "grass-roots leader" can do no less. |
