Microsoft Hires a Bush Adviser to Lobby Bush nytimes.com
Meanwhile, new evidence that Bill's still acting as his own attorney appears. And still engaging out the same brilliant legal strategy, regardless of past setbacks. Bill sure sticks to his guns, has anybody figured out the difference between NGWS and DNA/DNS, or whatever vaporous slogan preceeded that?
The Microsoft Corporation has quietly hired Ralph Reed, a senior consultant to Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign, to lobby Mr. Bush in opposition to the government's antitrust case against the software giant.
Microsoft's aim, the company says, is to curry favor with the apparent Republican presidential nominee, hoping he will speak out against the government's case -- and, perhaps, take a softer approach toward the company if he is elected president.
Mr. Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, is well situated to take on the assignment since his firm, Century Strategies, is one of Mr. Bush's top consultants. During the primary campaign, Mr. Reed frequently appeared on television to talk on behalf of the campaign.
Think Bill explained to Reed how it wasn't time effective to go to church on Sundays?
A series of e-mail messages from John Pudner, senior project manager for Century Strategies, laid out a detailed plan by Mr. Reed's staff and his contractors to recruit senior Bush supporters from around the country in an effort to undermine the government's suit.
The Bush supporters -- and the e-mail showed that Mr. Pudner is screening them carefully to make sure they are influential within the campaign -- are being asked to write letters to Mr. Bush saying they believe the government's case is misguided, and that the American people oppose it.
Mr. Pudner's e-mail messages instruct "state operatives" of the firm to send him biographical information about Bush supporters who could help influence the Bush campaign.
Only after he has verified that the supporters are sufficiently influential are the regional lobbyists, working on contract for Century Strategies, authorized to solicit more letters.
He said that the company intended to gather the letters through the end of this month. "We will reject letters that are not from someone" the company counts as influential, he wrote.
The e-mails were made available to The New York Times by a recipient who did not agree with the goals of the campaign. One lobbyist said Century Strategies was offering the regional contractors $300 a letter -- a high price for this sort of work.
It seems the local friends of Bill just haven't been pulling their weight in the letter department. I could imagine the locally solicited letters perhaps ended up sounding a bit too intemperate to be persuasive, but who can say? Maybe Reggie just doesn't count as influential.
Cheers, Dan. |
