With all due respect, please take this discussion off-line.

The examples of political influence are too numerous to mention on both side of
the isle.

Isn't there another list where these discussion can be posted OT?

Regards,

-Craig

--- Michael Baier <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Mr. Yokem,
>
> back to the rules for being a republican.
> Are these the rules?
>
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
> tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=2&u=/latimests/20040220/ts_latimes/lucrative
> dealsforadaughterofpolitics
>
> Lucrative Deals for a Daughter of Politics
>
> By Ken Silverstein, Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper Times Staff
> Writers
>
> WASHINGTON — Karen Weldon, an inexperienced 29-year-old lobbyist from
> suburban Philadelphia, seemed an unlikely choice for clients seeking global
> public relations services.
>
> Yet her tiny firm was selected last year for a plum $240,000 contract to
> promote the good works of a wealthy Serbian family that had been linked to
> accused war criminal Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites).
>
> Despite a lack of professional credentials, she had one notable asset — her
> father, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (news, bio, voting record) (R-Pa.), who is a
> leading voice in Washington on former Eastern Bloc affairs.
>
> She got the contract after he championed the efforts of two family members,
> Dragomir and Bogoljub Karic, to win U.S. visas from the State Department,
> which so far has refused them entry.
>
> Intelligence officials warned Weldon that the brothers were too close to
> Milosevic, who is accused of leading the "ethnic cleansing" in the former
> Yugoslav federation.
>
> But the congressman has praised the Karics, who own a vast empire of
> banking, telecommunication and other firms, as model business leaders and
> humanitarians. He has portrayed them as victims of faulty intelligence
> reports and, last month, asked the CIA (news - web sites) to sit down with
> them and sort things out. He has repeatedly pressed the State Department to
> give them visas.
>
> Karen Weldon said her father "developed a rapport" with the Karics and
> introduced her to them. But her firm, Solutions North America Inc., won the
> consulting contract on its merits, she said. Her father declined to answer
> questions for this article.
>
> The congressman also has gone to bat for at least two of Solutions' other
> clients, both struggling Russian companies.
>
> Together, the three contracts are worth almost $1 million a year to her
> firm for services that have included joining her father on congressional
> trips and in meetings with clients.
>
> The Weldons are the latest example of special interests hiring relatives of
> important members of Congress as lobbyists and consultants. Over the last
> year, The Times has identified 11 other House members and 17 senators with
> relatives who lobby or consult, many of them for clients the members have
> helped through legislative or other action.
>
> Congressional ethics rules provide few barriers to the practice. They do
> not forbid members of Congress from helping companies or others who are
> paying their relatives.
>
> But Weldon has brought his daughter so deeply into his official activities
> that they sometimes appear to be working in tandem.
>
> Conallen said the congressman's actions on behalf of Karen Weldon's clients
> posed no ethical concerns.
>
> "I just don't think there's anything strange about it," he said. "If Curt
> wanted to he could snap his fingers and divert a lot of business to Karen,
> and that hasn't happened."
>
> Karen Weldon has a partner in Solutions, Charles P. Sexton Jr., 67, the
> former finance chairman of Rep. Weldon's campaigns. Neither has lobbied
> Weldon nor asked for his help, Conallen said.
>
> "The fact that they have contracts with these clients hasn't influenced
> anything Curt has done," he said.
>
> The congressman was advocating for the Karics and other Eastern European
> business interests long before his daughter opened her firm, Conallen said.
>
> In a written statement Thursday, Conallen added, "The congressman is
> generally aware of his daughter's company and the work she does for several
> of her clients. But the congressman has not discussed the specifics of
> Solutions North America's agreements with their clients or the nature of
> their representation."
>
> Karen Weldon declined to say whether she discussed her clients with her
> father. But she said her firm's success was not due to his position in
> Congress.
>
> "Because of who he is, people have questioned me all my life about whether
> I'm qualified and if I can do the job," she said. "I have nothing to hide.
> I haven't done anything inappropriate."
>
> Going Into Business
>
> Rep. Weldon, a former school teacher, was first elected to Congress in 1986
> from the Republican suburbs southwest of Philadelphia. Over nine terms, he
> has moved up in seniority on the House Armed Services Committee. He is vice
> chairman — the second-ranking Republican — and chairman of its tactical air
> and land forces subcommittee.
>
> Weldon, a Russian studies major in college, also is a noted advocate of
> closer relationships with the former Soviet Union. He has made more than 30
> trips to Russia as a member of Congress. He is the founder and chairman of
> the Congressional U.S.-Former Soviet Union Energy Caucus and founder and co-
> chairman of the official interparliamentary exchange between the U.S. and
> Russia.
>
> Today, Conallen said, "There is nobody in Congress more knowledgeable about
> Russia than Curt Weldon." That judgment is shared by many of Weldon's House
> colleagues.
>
> Until she launched Solutions, Karen Weldon had been following a different
> career path. She had an undergraduate degree in education and a graduate
> degree in information systems.
>
> She spent six years, she said, working on "learning and training programs"
> for Boeing Co., which has a helicopter plant at the edge of Rep. Weldon's
> district. Conallen said Weldon did not help his daughter get the job at
> Boeing, which is a frequent beneficiary of his work in Washington and one
> of his top campaign donors.
>
> When she and Sexton opened their business in September 2002, Solutions'
> office consisted of a cubicle in a suburban Philadelphia office suite that
> provided a common receptionist and conference room for all 120 of its
> tenants. A few months later, Solutions opened a similar office in downtown
> Washington.
>
> Karen Weldon said Sexton "makes a lot of the business connections" for
> their firm. Her partner is a political power broker in Weldon's district
> and the former owner of a security guard company, which he recently sold
> for $6 million.
>
> She described her role as "legwork and project management," including
> graphics and Web development.
>
> She said she doesn't work on legislation and called Solutions "more of a
> business consultancy than a lobbying firm," though she and Sexton have
> registered with the Justice Department (news - web sites) as foreign agents
> for their three clients. Lobbyists representing overseas clients must file
> disclosure reports with the department's Foreign Agents Registration Unit.
>
> She would not say who else she and Sexton represented beyond the three
> clients reported in Solutions' disclosure forms.
>
> Karen Weldon said the idea for Solutions originated with Sexton. He was
> already talking to Itera, the Russian energy company, she said. Sexton
> declined an interview request from The Times.
>
> She said they became 50-50 partners, and Itera became Solutions' first
> client. It paid $170,000 of its annual fee up front — a timely infusion of
> cash for a start-up firm, especially one that had little experience or
> presence in Washington.
>
> Russian Relations
>
> Itera needed friends in Washington.
>
> Questions had been raised by Russian energy and investment companies about
> how Itera had gained title to billions of dollars worth of natural gas
> resources from a state-controlled conglomerate called Gazprom.
>
> William Browder of Hermitage Capital Management, a large Russian investment
> fund with a stake in Gazprom, said the conglomerate transferred the assets
> for little or nothing.
>
> Itera officials declined to be interviewed.
>
> The controversy has been a cloud over Itera's efforts to gain access to
> Western investment capital and markets. The U.S. Trade and Development
> Agency withdrew an $868,000 grant to the company in March 2002 after
> questions were raised about Itera's background, said Leocadia Zak, an
> agency lawyer. It was a setback to the image of the company, which is
> seeking to expand its natural gas, timber and real estate holdings in the
> United States.
>
> Two months later, Rep. Weldon led a congressional delegation to Moscow in
> connection with a visit by President Bush (news - web sites). Weldon toured
> Itera's offices and, according to a company news release, praised it as
> a "strong and well-established company," and recommended it as "a great
> source" for U.S. energy firms seeking partners for joint ventures.
>
> When he returned home, Weldon blasted the Trade and Development Agency's
> decision at a news conference and made calls to the State Department on the
> company's behalf, though to no avail.
>
> On Sept. 5 and 6, 2002, Itera paid for Weldon's lodging in New York so he
> could do an interview with Russian radio about energy, Conallen said.
>
> A week later, Itera sent e-mails to Karen Weldon telling her the company
> would complete the terms of a contract with her firm at an upcoming dinner
> in Washington that her father was co-hosting to honor Itera's chairman.
>
> The dinner took place Sept. 24 at the Library of Congress. That day, Rep.
> Weldon had introduced a resolution in the House that encouraged U.S.-
> Russian cooperation on developing energy resources. Two days later, in a
> floor speech, he gave House colleagues a glowing report on Itera.
>
=== message truncated ===


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want.
http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *