Ed Gillespie -- What a guy. Here are some of his business dealings at Quinn, Gillespie & Associates:
· Since its founding by Gillespie and former Clinton White House counsel Jack Quinn in 2000,
the firm has collected $27.4 million in lobbying fees through 2002.
· Enron paid Quinn Gillespie $700,000 in 2001 alone to lobby on the “California energy
crisis” and thwart efforts to re-regulate the Western electricity market through price controls.
Before its collapse, the company also funneled money to a Gillespie-run group to buy
national television ads promoting the president’s industry-friendly energy plan.
· PricewaterhouseCoopers paid Quinn Gillespie $1.35 million from 2000 to 2002 to lobby
against increased oversight of the accounting industry. PricewaterhouseCoopers – which paid
a $5 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2002 for repeated accounting
irregularities, including improperly auditing millions in fees paid to its own consultants – tried
to water down accounting reforms in the wake of an unprecedented wave of corporate fraud.
· DaimlerChrysler paid more than $1 million to Quinn Gillespie, which lobbied heavily
against any increase in fuel-efficiency standards for gas-guzzling light trucks and SUVs.
Gillespie declared, “The Democrats’ approach to energy policy is an attack on our quality of life.”
· The U.S. Chamber of Commerce paid Quinn Gillespie $860,000 to lobby for the so-called
Class Action Fairness Act, which would make it easier for companies to prevail in class
action lawsuits accusing them of defrauding customers. All told, the firm has collected at
least $1.12 million to lobby for this anti-consumer bill.
· After helping set up the Commerce Department as part of the Bush transition team, Gillespie
returned to his practice and began immediately lobbying on behalf of clients with business
before the department. Gillespie helped secure tariffs against foreign competition for the
Stand Up for Steel coalition (which paid the firm $760,000) and USEC Inc. ($957,000), the
country’s largest supplier of enriched uranium to nuclear power plants.
· Tyson Foods paid Quinn Gillespie $440,000 in 2002, in part to downplay federal charges
against Tyson for conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States to work at
its poultry processing plants for lower wages than it paid legal workers. The firm also lobbied
on “wage and hour” issues for Tyson, a result of a Labor Department lawsuit against Tyson
seeking $300 million in back pay owed to workers.
· Viacom, the parent company of the CBS and UPN networks, retained Quinn Gillespie for
two years – and $720,000 – to push for relaxed rules on the number and reach of television
stations a single company could own. In June, the Federal Communications Commission
voted to raise the allowable percentage of the nation’s viewers within the reach of a given
company’s stations and increased the number of stations a network could own in one city.
· Quinn Gillespie’s single biggest client, the British Columbia Lumber Trade Council,
spent $1.78 million on lobbying in a failed effort to remove U.S. tariffs on Canadian
softwood lumber.
· SBC Communications paid Quinn Gillespie $1.24 million to lobby for exemptions from
rules requiring the company to share its lines with rival Internet providers. In total, the firm
took in nearly $3 million from the telecom industry from 2000 to 2002.
· The firm also was paid $1.24 million by DirecTV during the company’s failed merger with
EchoStar communications. Now Rupert Murdoch is making a bid for the satellite television
provider.
· Network Advertising Initiative, a coalition of Internet companies, paid Quinn Gillespie
$920,000 to help persuade the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to allow the high-tech
industry to self-regulate on privacy matters.
· Microsoft paid Quinn Gillespie $820,000 to lobby during negotiations over its antitrust
settlement as well as to oppose the use, especially within the government, of “open source”
systems such as Linux.
.... Public Citizen goes on to say:
In American politics, few non-governmental positions offer as much potential for corruption as
national party chairman. Ed Gillespie’s record of advocacy for the interests of Corporate
America – including some of the country’s most infamous corporate wrongdoers – raises serious
questions about President Bush’s decision to appoint Gillespie to lead the Republican Party.
Theres more about this great public servant:
citizen.org |
