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Corrupt Government Title: MSM weasel wording: When you see 'elder statesman' think 'lobbyist' Back during the ObamaCare debate, the liberal mainstream media swooned when retired Republican congressional leaders like Bob Dole and Bill Frist, along with GOP former Health & Human Services Secretaries Tommy Thompson and Louis Sullivan, urged Republicans to help Obama pass a health-care bill. Somehow these smitten reporters and their editors found it unneccessary to mention that Dole, Frist, Thompson, and Sullivan were all in the pay of health-care companies, many of which will profit from the bill's subsidies, mandates, and regulations. So last night, when I saw a National Journal story about "prominent Republican elder statesmen" pushing their party to embrace regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, I thought, "ah, that means revolving-door former lawmakers in the pay of companies that will profit from GHG regulations." And I was right. Here's the frame of the piece: "A number of influential Republicans who have left the battlefield of electoral politics are now taking action in an effort to change the GOP’s stance" on climate change. Top of the list, and the smiling mug illustrating the article, is former John McCain economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who works for "the New Hampshire-based climate policy advocacy group Clean Air-Cool Planet" advocating a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions. I would think it relevant to mention what National Journal reporter Carol Davenport did not mention: that Clean Air-Cool Planet is funded in part by companies that would profit from a carbon tax. CA-CP funders include politically connected nuclear giant Exelon, which has long lobbied for taxes on competing energy sources. Also on the list of corporations paying the folks who fly Eakin around are: United Technologies (invested in subsidy-dependent technologies including wind power, and hoping to earn some "early action credits"); Keyspan (which deals in natural gas, which is lower in CO2); and a handful of solar and wind developers. I don't think Holtz-Eakin is a shill for nuclear, wind, solar, and natural gas, but it's worth pointing out who is picking up his tab while he trumpets a carbon tax, and how they would profit from that tax. The second GOP "elder statesmen" mentioned is former Sen. John Warner. NatJo's Davenport mentions that Warner is a now lobbyist at the K Street firm Hogan Lovells. He's doing his climate-change work under a different hat, but I find it interesting that one of Warner's lobbying clients has been GE. GE is famously invested in the promise of greenhouse gas regulation. They've taken up Enron's role as the leading energy-industry advocate of cap-and-trade. Warner was last registered to lobby in 2010, so we don't know if he's still working for GE, or if he's doing climate work for them. Also, having spoken to Warner on this issue, I believe he's sincere about it. But I imagine if Warner were opposing climate legislation and was working, even under other auspices, for a lobbying firm with Exxon as a client, that most media outlets would find that relevant. Our media is rightly critical of lawmakers who monetize their public service by becoming lobbyists. But you shed the "industry-paid" or "corporate lobbyist" label, it seems, once you start advocating more government. Then you become an "elder statesman."
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#1. To: Happy Quanzaa (#0)
Frist was often called the Senator from Humana...don't blame the media for people not paying attention.
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