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Text File | 1993-04-08 | 6KB | 132 lines

                                                                                ETHICS, Page 40

When Lobbyists Become Insiders


While working for presidential campaigns, influence peddlers
may be serving their own interests

By MICHAEL DUFFY/WASHINGTON -- With reporting by Melissa August/
Washington


    When Ross Perot challenged George Bush and Bill Clinton in
the final debate to explain why they "have people representing
foreign countries working on their campaigns," his rivals bobbed
and weaved. Clinton deflected Perot's dare by promising, if
elected, to toughen laws governing foreign lobbyists. Bush had
a see-no-evil response. "I don't think there's anything wrong,"
Bush said, "with an honest person who happens to represent an
interest of another country from making his case. That's the
American way."

    Lobbying is certainly nice work if you can get it.
Governments and corporations -- foreign or domestic -- will pay
top Washington influence peddlers as much as $45,000 a month.
But what is worrisome is that several of the most sought-after
foreign lobbyists have attached themselves to the campaigns of
Bush and Clinton, offering advice about politics, trade and
international affairs, usually for no salary. The contribution
enhances a lobbyist's value to his clients, but it creates at
least the appearance that candidates are beholden to the foreign
and domestic clients who pay their advisers' salaries. "When
lobbyists and politicians team up," notes Charles Lewis,
executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, "there
is a sense that only access and influence matters, and that
erodes public trust in government."

    Because of their proximity to power, the hired guns in
Bush's posse are the most controversial. Charles Black, the
unpaid senior political adviser to the Bush campaign, is a
partner in the public relations firm of Black, Manafort, Stone
and Kelly, which represents a rebel faction in Angola; the
governments of Greece and Nigeria; and the Pacific Seafood
Processors Association, which battled the Commerce Department
earlier this year for the right to process a larger share of the
$800 million Alaskan pollack catch. James Lake, Bush's unpaid
deputy campaign manager, is a partner in the public relations
firm of Robinson, Lake, Lerer & Montgomery, which represents a
variety of clients, including Mitsubishi Electronics, the
government of Ukraine and the Mexican cement giant Cemex.

    Black and Lake contend that they have refrained from
lobbying on issues involved in the campaign and have disclosed
to campaign lawyers a list of clients, financial holdings and
prior lobbying activities. Since early summer, both have
promised to forgo lobbying the Executive Branch until after the
election.

    But Lake's efforts on behalf of several clients earlier
this year raise questions about influence peddlers who
volunteer their time. Last February, just a month after Lake
joined the Bush campaign, the Canadian Forest Industries Council
hired Lake's firm to "track legislation" and monitor
"administrative activities." A month later, the Commerce
Department imposed a 14.5% tariff on subsidized lumber imports
from Canada under the terms of the U.S.-Canada free trade pact.
During the next 10 weeks, Lake twice telephoned Clayton Yeutter,
who was then White House domestic-policy adviser; in a
conversation on May 10, Lake asked Yeutter to take a phone call
from a lawyer pleading the Canadians' case. Five days later, the
Commerce Department reduced the duty on lumber imports to 6.5%.
Yeutter has denied that Lake's intervention had any impact on
the department's final decision.

    Lake's firm also represents the Abu Dhabi Investment
Authority, which owns a majority stake in the scandal-plagued
Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Massachusetts Senator
John Kerry has accused the holding company of hiding evidence
of B.C.C.I.'s fraud from U.S. investigators. In April, according
to documents filed with the Justice Department, Lake put aside
his campaign work for five days and flew to Abu Dhabi to consult
with company officials about "strategy and developments." Says
Lake: "We gave them advice. That's not lobbying."

    Lake and Black have many Japanese clients as well, which
led Patrick Buchanan in January to liken the two men to "geisha
girls of the new world order" and charge that "Mr. Bush's
campaign is virtually a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan Inc."
Senior White House officials later pressed Lake and Black to
sever ties with their firms to prevent Clinton from capitalizing
on the issue, but the effort fizzled. Explains Bush-Quayle
counsel Bobby Burchfield: "If you have to sever your ties with
business in order to work in presidential campaigns, people will
not work in presidential campaigns."

    Clinton has not exploited the issue, in part because many
of his own advisers do lobbying work too. Clinton national
campaign chairman Mickey Kantor is a partner in the Los Angeles
law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor, which represents
Japan's NEC Corp., United Airlines and the National Cable
Television Association. Democratic Party chairman Ron Brown is
an "inactive" but still salaried partner in the Washington law
firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow, which represents more than 100
companies, governments and other clients, including the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority.

    Should lobbyists moonlight for presidential campaigns?
Montana Senator Max Baucus has introduced a bill to prohibit
senior campaign officials from lobbying for foreign interests
to "ensure that they do not use their public positions to
promote the agendas of their private-sector clients." But the
problem isn't only foreign lobbyists. As long as presidential
candidates rely on the advice of those whose salaries are paid
by special interests, foreign or domestic, they reinforce the
impression that government is for sale to the highest bidder.