Bush's Hypocrisy: President Condemns Influence of Special Interests But
Accepted at Least $6.5 Million Bundled by Lobbyists in 2003
Public Citizen Analysis Finds 53 Registered Federal Lobbyists
in Ranks of Bush's Rangers and Pioneers
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Bush-Cheney campaign's elite fundraisers - who
have raked in more than $142 million and counting since June - include
at least 53 federal registered lobbyists, according to an analysis by
Public Citizen. While the Bush campaign has strongly criticized
Democratic challenger John Kerry for being beholden to "special
interests," the president accepted more in direct contributions from
lobbyists in one year than Kerry did in the past 15 years. In addition,
he collected at least $6.5 million "bundled" by Washington
influence-peddlers last year.
On Thursday, the Bush-Cheney campaign sent a video message to more than
6 million people, decrying U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as an
"unprincipled" politician "brought to you by the special interests." The
video (available on the campaign's Web site at
georgewbush.com cites a recent Washington
Post story reporting that Kerry had raised more campaign money in
individual "hard money" donations from lobbyists since 1989 - about
$640,000 - than any other senator (although this does not account for
the fact that Kerry does not accept PAC money, which, if counted, would
rank him near the bottom among all senators in total special interest
contributions). According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bush
received more than $960,000 in individual contributions from lobbyists
last year.
Kerry's total is just a fraction of the money brought in to the Bush
re-election campaign by lobbyists. Twelve registered federal lobbyists
have been named Bush Rangers, the title awarded to those fundraisers who
bundle at least $200,000 in individual contributions. Another 41
lobbyists have become Pioneers by raising at least $100,000. Although
the campaign refuses to release exact fundraising totals for its
big-money bundlers, lobbyists last year collected at least $6.5 million
in bundled donations for Bush - or 10 times what Kerry raised in direct
contributions from lobbyists over 15 years.
"Bush's video represents the height of hypocrisy," said Public Citizen
President Joan Claybrook. "In modern times, no president or presidential
candidate has come close to being as indebted to special interests as
the current occupant of the White House."
Added Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, "We
congratulate President Bush on his newfound concern about the undue
influence of special interests in Washington. We hope Bush will join
Senator Kerry in pledging to ban federal officials from lobbying for
five years after they leave office. And we urge the president to endorse
his challenger's proposal to require all meetings between lobbyists and
federal officials to be made public."
However, both these proposals may cause some complications for Bush's
big-money bundlers. For example, two of the president's former top
assistants in the White House office of Homeland Security - Pioneers
Carl M. Bucholz and Mark A. Holman - now work for Ranger David
Girard-DiCarlo at the lobbying firm Blank Rome. Cashing in on their
connections, Blank Rome's clients include numerous companies competing
for contracts at the new Department of Homeland Security.
The "revolving door" between Capitol Hill and K Street also has been
very generous to the Bush campaign. The legislators-cum-lobbyists who
each have bundled at least $100,000 for the Bush campaign include former
U.S. Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and ex-U.S. Reps. Tillie Fowler
(R-Fla.), Kent Hance (R-Texas), Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.), Tom Loeffler
(R-Texas) and Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.).
Releasing details of meetings between lobbyists and federal officials
would represent an even more remarkable turnaround for the Bush
administration. After all, the administration repeatedly has refused to
release even the names of non-governmental officials who met with Dick
Cheney's energy task force, taking the case all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court. The few documents previously made public by court order
suggest that lobbyists enjoyed red carpet access to the task force.
Two-time Pioneer Tom Kuhn, head of the Edison Electric Institute, met
at least 14 times with the task force, which recommended gutting key
clean air laws opposed by the utility companies that comprise his
group's membership. High-powered lobbyist Haley Barbour, a Pioneer in
2000 who represented electric utilities Southern Co. and First Energy,
met at least four times with task force officials. Now that Barbour is
governor of Mississippi, his partner Lanny Griffith has collected at
least $100,000 to fill their firm's slot on the Pioneer list. Another
lobbyist Pioneer, National Mining Association chief Jack Gerard, helped
shape the administration's industry-friendly energy policy along with
Kuhn as a member of Bush's Department of Energy transition team.
This information is at WhiteHouseForSale.org, a site Public Citizen
created to track major contributors to the 2004 presidential campaigns.
The Web site features a searchable database with 165 Rangers and 251
Pioneers identified by the Bush campaign so far, as well as the 119
major donors named so far by the Kerry campaign. For a list of the 53
lobbyists and some of their notable clients go to
whitehouseforsale.org.
"The Bush administration's record of paying back its campaign
contributors is unparalleled," Claybrook said. "Bush's bundlers made out
like bandits from the Medicare bill, the pending energy legislation and
the tax cuts targeted toward the wealthiest Americans. Before he starts
mudslinging, the president should come clean about his own record."
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Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
whitehouseforsale.org or citizen.org. |
