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Banned
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If The U.S is at War, What Do These Lobbyists Think They Are Doing?
Do some of the president's most prominent financial backers think that they "can have it both ways?" Does the president think so? The administration tells us that "we are a nation at war", "support the troops", "you are either with us, or you are against us", and that criticism of the president's policies in Iraq and Gitmo, and about "pre-emptive war", "undermines the troops" ,and the "war on terror".
It appears that some of the president's prominent, and presumably influential political financial backers are working for the Chinese government owned CNOOC state oil company, in it's bid to thwart Chevron's purchase of Unocal, the third largest U.S. oil company.
Is it all just a smokescreen, so that the businessmen and lawyers with the most political influence can profit as they undermine the economy and the "war effort" for their own, immediate financial gain. Is the "liberal" MSM covering this story adequately?
This ties in with the China/Russia thread that I started yesterday, but IMO, it deserves it's own spotlight. If the threat to the U.S. is real, isn't this approaching a category of unacceptable conflict of interests? IMO, the litany of items that are reflexively dismissed by supporters of the administration as "Bush Bashing", because that is what "Bush Haters" do, is growing too vast to be dismissed as "just politics"!
Why is the "liberal media", not "all over this"?
Quote:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asi...ith_bush_ties/
CNOOC eyes help from firms with Bush ties
By Adam Entous | June 30, 2005
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese oil company making a blockbuster bid to buy a U.S. oil producer is lobbying for the deal using firms whose top ranks include some of President Bush's biggest fund-raisers, members of administration boards on intelligence and trade, and former campaign advisers.
China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd. has offered $18.5 billion in cash to acquire California-based Unocal Corp., sparking a backlash on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted overwhelmingly to try to block the Bush administration from approving the proposed deal. Opponents fear Beijing may be trying to corner world supplies at a time of rising gasoline prices and global competition for crude.
Some Republican insiders are also concerned about political fallout over a web of connections between the Bush White House and CNOOC's paid advocates in Washington -- the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and media advisers Public Strategies Inc.
Akin Gump partners Alan Feld and James Langdon, and senior adviser and former U.S. Rep. Bill Paxon, rank among Bush's $100,000 fund-raising "pioneers," according to Texans for Public Justice, which tracks political donations.
Bush's media adviser in both presidential campaigns, Mark McKinnon, is vice chairman of Texas-based Public Strategies.
"Certainly Akin Gump has access in part because of its campaign contributions to Bush's political career," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice.
Republican consultant Charlie Black was skeptical. "Friendship doesn't get you very far when you're developing policy," he said.
INTERNAL DEBATE
The White House has yet to take a public position on the proposed CNOOC deal, which could be blocked on national security grounds. Sources said an internal debate has started, pitting administration free traders against defense hawks worried about China's growing clout.
"It's a real fault line and the fact that all of Bush's friends are working for the communist Chinese while gas prices are at $2.50" concerns some of his fellow Republicans, said a prominent Republican consultant who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said an inter-agency review would address any national security concerns, and that he knew of no involvement by former or current Bush advisers in CNOOC's bid for Unocal, the ninth largest U.S. oil and gas producer.
U.S. Treasury Department spokesman Tony Fratto said any inter-agency review would be "strictly on the merits."
CNOOC's bid topped a $16 billion-plus offer that Unocal had already accepted from Chevron Corp., also based in California. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who once served on the board of Chevron, has recused herself from the matter.
Public Strategies' point man on CNOOC, Mark Palmer, rebuffed questions about the firm's ties to the White House as "a red herring and a ghost story."
"We are a corporate communications consulting firm and are providing a service to our client. We're not lobbying," Palmer said, adding that McKinnon would not work on the CNOOC campaign "at all."
FRIENDS AND FUNDRAISERS
Bush appointed Langdon, a long-time friend and fundraiser, earlier this year to serve as chairman of both his Foreign Intelligence Advisory and Intelligence Oversight Boards.
The lawyer that will steer CNOOC through an inter-agency review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States -- Akin Gump partner Edward Rubinoff -- is a member of the president's export council subcommittee on export administration, which advises the administration on export controls and security-related trade issues.
The Committee on Foreign Investment would determine whether the deal poses any risk to national or economic security.
Daniel Spiegel, a member of Akin Gump's CNOOC team and a former Clinton administration appointee, said Langdon has decided to recuse himself from CNOOC matters at the firm because of his role on Bush's intelligence advisory board.
"It is extremely unlikely that this issue would ever come up before the presidential advisory board that Langdon is on. If it did, he would recuse himself from it," a Langdon spokeswoman said.
Rubinoff does not plan to recuse himself, Spiegel said, "because this board that he is on is a high-level technical advisory committee on export matters, which is not what is involved here."
Paxon, who chaired Bush's transition advisory team after serving as a key adviser in the 2000 campaign, will be "assisting" in the CNOOC effort, Spiegel said, adding that any past fund-raising activities were irrelevant. Feld will have "no involvement with the CNOOC matter," Spiegel said. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Richard Cowan)
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Quote:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/...ess/unocal.php
Unocal suitors make pitches
By Steve Lohr The New York Times
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2005
.........To counter Chevron's home-field advantage, Cnooc has moved quickly to enlist lobbyists and policy and media advisers of its own. It has signed up Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the law firm whose partners include major fund-raisers for Bush like Alan Feld and James Langdon Jr. Another major Bush fund-raiser, Bill Paxon, a former House Republican from New York, is a senior adviser to Akin Gump.
The media adviser for Cnooc's takeover fight is Public Strategies, whose vice chairman is Mark McKinnon, who guided Bush's media campaign in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
The Chevron side is certainly winning the early rounds in Washington. The House of Representatives, by huge majorities, passed two measures last Thursday that protest the Chinese bid: an amendment to cut off money for any government review that might allow the Chinese offer to proceed, and a nonbinding resolution that lists a litany of objections to the bid and calls on Bush to order an immediate investigation on national security grounds.
The competition for Unocal touches a host of U.S. anxieties about China that have little to do with the merits of the bids by Chevron and Cnooc. China's rapid rise as an economic power, its military ambitions and U.S. jobs lost to efficient Chinese manufacturers are among the concerns.
"What we're seeing in Washington shows the hysteria about China," said William Reinsch, a former trade official in the Clinton administration who is a member of United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory group to Congress. "It means that any deal like this is going to be debated in a red-hot rhetorical atmosphere."..........
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