Money Begins to Talk in Bush Administration

During Bill Clinton’s presidency, Republicans were loud in accusing the White House of being too cozy with campaign contributors and lobbyists and relentlessly looking to shape policy to appeal to this or that group of minority voters. Influence peddling seemed rife, as did special treatment and access for corporate bigwigs who shelled out for the Democrats.
       Candidate George W. Bush promised to exorcise sleaze and to restore integrity to government — even the impression of impropriety would be avoided, his aides promised. There would be no more White House coffee receptions where access to the president would be supplied in return for campaign donations, which secured more than $600,000 for the Democrats between 1994 and 1996. And there would be no more U-turns on policy dictated by purely naked electoral considerations.
       But already the line in the sand is being scuffed, say friends of the Bush administration. First, Vice President Dick Cheney hosted a reception at his official residence for major party donors. In explaining the difference between the Democratic coffee klatches and the gathering overseen by Cheney, his spokesmen emphasized that there had been no appeals for cash — a disingenuous distinction since the reception with the veep was a reward for money already given and gratefully received.
       With the Democrats on the rampage about Big Oil donations to the Republicans — of course the Democrats are crying crocodile tears, as they dearly would love to get their hands on energy loot — the Cheney reception seemed at best ill-timed. The Democratic claim that the administration is in the pocket of oil interests already is beginning to tell.
       And behind the scenes there have been some other touches — or touching up — that invoke memories of the not-too-distant Clinton past, according to administration sources unhappy with the influence wielded by some Republican veterans. They point to the visit in February of Puerto Rico’s Sila Calderon, the island’s first female governor, and the pressure the Pentagon since has come under from some White House aides to halt the U.S. Navy’s insistence on using Vieques, a small island off Puerto Rico, as a bombing range.
       A strange alliance of critics, including Puerto Rican nationalists, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Republican New York Gov. George Pataki, contend that using the island for bombing exercises poses a health danger to Vieques’ 10,000 inhabitants. The Navy says the island is the only suitable location it has for practicing aerial bombing and offshore gunnery with real ordnance. So what’s up?
       Since Calderon’s election, there have been several significant changes in the lineup of lobbyists retained in Washington to represent Puerto Rico. Lobby shops close to the Clinton policymakers either have been cut or seen their retainers reduced. Their Republican rivals have benefited, including BKSH & Associates headed by Charles Black, a Republican strategist who last year was an adviser to George W. Bush’s campaign and is a longtime pal of former president George H.W. Bush.
       As the lead lobbyist for Calderon’s pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party, Black was well-positioned to secure a good contract from the island government. The shift is beginning to pay off for client and lobbyist. Black helped organize Calderon’s meeting in Washington last February with Josh Bolton, deputy chief of staff, during which Chief of Staff Andrew Card made one of those entirely “impromptu” drop-bys.
       There also was a face-to-face meeting for Calderon, whose promise to end the Navy’s bombing runs on Vieques helped her get elected as governor, with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, although Black has insisted it was the Pentagon that requested the meeting. Rumsfeld appeared sympathetic to Calderon. But in May the defense secretary allowed the Navy to resume gunnery practice and dismissed a Clinton health study that suggested Vieques’ inhabitants may suffer more cardiac problems than normal. That hasn’t pleased Karl Rove, one of the three Texans at the heart of Bush’s campaign last summer and now a special assistant to the president.
       Black privately urged the White House to intervene, maintaining that to stop all bombing on Vieques would boost Republican standing with Hispanics. Rove’s longtime pet electoral theme has been the need for the Republicans to appeal to Hispanics. Some insiders say he seems to have bought into one of the sillier myths about the Latino vote — that it is a monolithic bloc with all Spanish-speaking nationalities marching in political lockstep.
       The gold-plated lobbyist also is pressing the case that Vieques could be a tourist gold mine if developed. Black appears to be making progress, to the irritation of some in the Pentagon who say defense policy shouldn’t be determined by Rove and his electoral strategies as if this were Clinton III.
       Black has kept a lower profile as a well-connected lobbyist than during the Reagan and Bush years. His firm at that time, Black Manafort Stone & Kelly, was at the center of a congressional influence-peddling inquiry into fees paid to Republican consultants to win approval of federal housing subsidies. And his shop enjoyed big successes for clients such as Bethlehem Steel.
       “I think I’ve got — if you just want to call it access — I guess I’ve got access to just about anybody in the government, but I don’t have a personal relationship with all of them,” Black boasted shrewdly back in 1989. “I guess I know most of the people in sensitive positions in the administration.” And he does again.