The Hightower Lowdown

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Jeffords Bombs K Street!

What's the most dangerous job in America? Construction? Drug cop? Taxi driver? Night clerk at 7-Eleven?

No. Lobbyist. Oh, I know, you're thinking that these Washington influence peddlers have the safest job on earth -- six-figure salaries, three-martini lunches, wining and dining Congress critters -- and confronting nothing more dangerous than maybe getting a neck cramp from excessive cell phone use. But you haven't factored in the explosive possibility that threatens these Gucci-clad laborers every day: The traumatic experience of "Sudden Party Shift."

Lobbying is all about getting tight with the powerful -- knowing key senators well enough that they'll take your late-night telephone calls. Corporations will pay Big Bucks for that kind of access. This year lots of corporate lobbyists were fat and sassy because they were bosom buddies with the Republicans in charge of Senate. But then -- kablooey! -- out of nowhere, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont hits the lobbying firms with a bomb.

Jeffords got so fed up with George Bush's extremism and frat boy arrogance that he switched from the GOP to become an Independent -- a move that switched the control of the Senate to Democrats. If you were a lobbyist whose stock in trade was your coziness with the Republican Senate leaders, your ship just sank. You went from power broker to dead battery, and watched in horror as your lobbying firm scrambled to replace you with someone who knows the home phone numbers of the Democrats. "Democratic lobbyists' stock has gone up 100%," says the head of the American League of Lobbyists.

Yeah, lobbying is hell. Don't weep too much, however -- most of the big lobbying firms are cozy with both Republicans and Democrats. When control shifts, they just switch hats. Congressional leaders come and go, but lobbyists are Washington's permanent class.

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Rove and Ethics?

Karl Rove, the political operative who developed George W's campaign theme of restoring "a new ethical tone" in the White House, now works as Bush's top White House advisor. Guess who has his butt caught in a tight ethical crack?

Yes, Karl! In March, Rove had a private meeting in the White House with the CEO and the chief lobbyist for Intel Corporation. They were there to get the White House to push for federal approval of a corporate merger that Intel wanted. The Intel honchos had no trouble getting access to White House officials because they knew the secret password: money. Intel had put more than $300,000 into Bush's presidential run.

Intel's lobbyist says the meeting was "quite useful." I'll say. Less than two months after meeting with Rove -- bingo! -- the merger was approved. But Rove's ethical problem is about more than doing a government favor for a big campaign contributor. He owned as much as $250,000 worth of Intel stock at the time, meaning he could personally profit if the merger deal boosted Intel's stock price.

Karl has had a memory lapse about all this. His spokesperson told the Times that Rove "did not recall" whether or not he discussed Intel's visit with President Bush. He asserts that he was out of the loop and not involved in the decision. The Times, however, reports that Rove continued to get correspondence from Intel about the merger until it was approved.

In a speech that Rove might have helped write, Bush said on his first day in office that he expected everyone working with him to behave ethically, "avoiding even the appearance of problems." For Karl, though, it seems "ethics" is just a word to put in a sound bite.

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Fast Track in Disguise

Here it comes again, highballing down the track like a runaway freight. It's the "Fast Track" special, with Little George Bush on board wearing an engineer's cap and blowing the whistle for his corporate contributors.

Fast Track is the anti-democratic scheme that provides an end run around normal legislative procedures. When authorized by Congress, this process allows presidents to negotiate global trade deals in secret and railroad those deals through Congress without a full debate or any amendments. This is how Bill Clinton brought us the joys of NAFTA, written to protect corporate moves to Mexico -- it could not be amended to protect workers, farmers, communities, or the environment.

In 1998, the congressional authorization for Fast Track expired. Clinton tried mightily, with Newt Gingrich's help, to twist enough congressional arms to reauthorize the process, but a grassroots rebellion by citizens defeated it.

The corporate powers that profit from these exploitative trade deals desperately want the Fast Track scheme back. They're trying to extend NAFTA to 31 other countries through another secretly negotiated scam called the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and they don't want Congress attaching any pesky amendments to prevent them from running roughshod over workers and the environment. They've got their boy Bush going round shouting "choo-choo," and demanding that Congress let him have this shiny presidential toy. They've even repackaged Fast Track with a new name, calling it "Trade Promotion Authority."

It's still a railroad job, and Congress should not surrender its constitutional authority to amend these one-sided trade scams. To help defeat Fast Track, call Global Trade Watch at 202/454-5106.

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Jim Hightower's book, If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates, is available in a fully revised and updated paperback edition.