Dick's Hostess, Ms. Armstrong, Has Made Over a Million Dollars Lobbying >>

[Stephanie]

How Is Cheney's Free Hunt Trip Different Than Abramoff's Free Golf Trips?

The hostess did close to a million dollars in lobbying fees over the last few years! Cheney is there on her ranch in the finest tradition of royalty - a house party and a hunt. Does he declare such a weekend as a gift from a lobbyist? What is the cash value of such a weekend?

The Ranch Where the Politicians Roam

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/weekinreview/19kornblut.html

<excerpt>

By many accounts Mrs. Armstrong, the matriarch, was as much of a driving force in politics as her husband. A New Orleans native, from a wealthy family of her own, she was named counselor to President Richard Nixon. President Gerald Ford, for whom Mr. Cheney served as chief of staff, appointed her United States ambassador to Britain in 1976. In more recent years, she served on the boards of American Express and Halliburton, the energy company of which Mr. Cheney was chief executive before becoming vice president.

The family's relationship with George W. Bush is equally apparent: When he was governor of Texas, Mr. Bush appointed Mrs. Armstrong as a regent of Texas A & M, and made her daughter Katharine a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission; she later became the chairwoman. She also became a lobbyist, and her clients include Mr. Baker's law firm, Baker Botts. Lobbying records show that Ms. Armstrong made at least $760,000 lobbying for clients in Washington in 2004 and 2005, and at least $300,000 working for four separate clients in Texas during that same period.

In the 2000 presidential cycle, both Katharine Armstrong and her parents were listed as Bush campaign "pioneers," fund-raisers who attracted $100,000 in donations for the Republican team.

As the family's influence rose, "going down to the Armstrong Ranch" became a phrase heard in Republican and Bush administration circles, conjuring up images of party luminaries gathering, as they did last weekend, for intimate weekends away.

[leftofthedial]

1. national security, executive privelege

he'll shoot you if you ask too many questions

and he'll shoot you if you don't

if he's not allowed to go live it up with his rich cronies and kill lots and lots and lots of doped-up birds on some lobbyist's dime, the terrorists win

[napi21]

2. There's actually a big difference.

Cheney really doesn't vote on anything, except to break a tie in the Senate. Abramoff's "friends" were bribed to vote for certain things, or insert specific language into bills that benefitted his employers.

I really don't know if Cheney would have to declare something like this on his "gifts" declaration or not. To be fair, it's really not different from you or I visiting friends, except our friends don't have the luxuries his friends have.

[HamdenRice]

4. That's Cheney's formal role, but not his informal role ...

A huge amount of reporting by critical journalists like Sy Hersh, show that Cheney, without any formal authority, has almost unfettered power when it comes to determining policy directions and handing out contracts.

His role in breaking ties in the Senate is trivial in comparison.

[HamdenRice]

3. How is it different? It's probably worse

I've posted about this several times to general indifference, but I think that IS the story.

The hostess, Katharine Armstrong, has clients that do business in Iraq (that coincidentally have to be closely coordinated with Halliburton)and with the Pentagon. We suspect that Cheney personally controls the doling out of contracts in both areas with coordination with Rumsfeld.

BTW, a correction on your figures. Katharine was paid about $1 million in lobbying fees, not $1 billion; but her clients have nearly $24 billion in business before Cheney and Rumsfeld. Here's what I posted earlier:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=459998&mesg_id=460159

Armstrong clients have $24 billion in Iraq, military contracts ...

I posted about this last week, but no one seemed particularly interested. The NYT article claimed that Armstrong had a few clients with $100,000 in business before the federal government and had never lobbied the administration. That was baldfaced disinformation and lies.

Here are some fun facts:

* One of Armstrong's clients, Parsons Engineering, has $4 billion in Iraq oil reconstruction contracts -- contracts that have to be harmonized the those of the dominant player in that area, Cheney's Halliburton.

* Another Armstrong client, Lockheed Martin, the largest single federal contractor, a builder of military equipment, especially jet fighters, has over $20 billion in contracts annually, and is projected to earn $200 billion in military contracts over the next few years.

* Armstrong's mother, Anne Armstrong, the owner of the Ranch where the incident took place, was on the board of directors when Cheney was hired as CEO. In other words, Katharine Armstrong's Mom got Cheney his job at Halliburton and now Katharine lobbies Cheney with fancy shooting parties.

* Anne Armstrong was on Reagan/Bush's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, meaning she has all the dirt about poppy's role in Iran-Contra, CIA cocaine financing of war and death squad activity in Central America.

Enjoy!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Stephanie]

5. oh gee, it was such a better story when I thought it was a billion!

:) :blush:

[HamdenRice]

8. The consulting fees are the chicken feed -- but the actual contracts are..

the substance -- so it is just as important a story.

[Stephanie]

12. thanks

So why isn't anyone talking about it?

[teryang]

6. It isn't

He's still working for Halliburton and feels entitled to the perks that go with that employment.

[SpiralHawk]

7. k & r fer sure

eom

[izzie]

9. They are all crooks.

We need to clean the place out and open all the windows and re-start.

[Scout1071]

10. Of course she is a lobbyist.

I think we should do a little research on Bush pioneers. It seems that so many of them have gotten a heavy return on their $100K Pioneer status. Invest $100K and get $1 Million? Sounds fair to me. Abramoff's Pioneer people? Cha-ching. Maybe we do a little research and find out just what the average return on investment has been for the Pioneers.

[Stephanie]

11. I guess this is chump change

Has anyone noticed how cheap the rich are?