By: Carmelo Ruiz
B ill Clinton's 1992 electoral triumph was
a vote of no confidence to twelve years of Republican
barbarism. The hopes of environmentalists, unions, public interest groups,
feminists, peace activists, civil rights advocates and other liberal constituencies
that supported Clinton in '92 was that he would put an end to Republican
policies that, among other things, favored corporate interests at the expense
of the poor and unilateralism and militarism over civilized diplomacy.
However, the members of Clinton's inner circle in the '92 campaign were mostly lawyers from powerful law firms that represent the Fortune 500 corporations, which constitute the permanent government of the United States. These lawyers gave domestic and foreign policy advice to the campaign, which, far from being impartial and objective, was tailored to their corporate clients' interests. For example, lawyers from pharmaceutical and insurance companies would advise Clinton on health reform issues, while lawyers from major banks would advise him on monetary and fiscal policy. This led me to conclude back then that Clinton would be more of the same.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be the case. President Clinton aped all of the Republicans' most backward positions on social issues; attacked Iraq several times; gave us the infamous Crime Bill; brought us the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has been an unmitigated economic disaster; and went through with the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which will have nefarious social and environmental consequences worldwide and may very well lead to an economic recolonization of the Third World. Bill Clinton, Inc. has done nothing more than to serve corporate interests and stab in the back the very same liberal constituencies that put him in the White House.
The lawyers and lobbyists that advised Clinton in '92 were generously rewarded for their services, as was the case with the following five:
* JAMES BLANCHARD. Former Michigan governor, Blanchard was in '92 a partner in the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, where he represented the Upjohn pharmaceutical company. Clinton named him ambassador to Canada.
* SAMUEL BERGER. Worked in the State Department during the Carter years, advised the campaign on foreign policy, and after the election headed the national security transition team. Before joining the campaign he was a parter at Hogan & Hartson, where he represented Toyota, the Japanese embassy, Lloyd's of London and the governments of Poland and the Bahamas. H&H has also represented Fox Broadcasting, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hewlett Packard, Intel, the Washington Post and the governments of Uganda, United Arab Emirates and the Czech Republic. Berger is now deputy assistant to the President for national security affairs.
* PAUL LONDON AND PAULA STERN. In 1992 this husband-and-wife team represented japanese industrial interests and the Mexico-US Business Committee, a corporate coalition that promoted NAFTA. London's clients included Hydro-Quebec and the Japanese Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers. He is now deputy undersecretary for economic affairs at the Commerce Department. Stern chaired the US International Trade Commission (ITC) from 1984 to 1987 and after quitting she testified on behalf of the Japanese Display Industry before the ITC itself. This revolving door case became the subject of an Emmy-winning PBS Frontline documentary. After the '92 elections, she joined the boards of directors of Wal-Mart and Westinghouse, as well as the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.
* STUART EIZENSTAT. President Carter's main domestic policy adviser. Before joining the '92 campaign he was a managing partner at the Atlanta law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazier and Murphy, where he represented Procter & Gamble, Hewlett Packard and Hitachi. During the Reagan-Bush years he lobbied for his clients, which were mostly developers and banks, even as he advised the Democratic party in his role as elder statesman.
When
labor unions fought for a worker's right-to-know law regarding toxics in
the workplace, Eizenstat lobbied for the National Manufacturers' Association
(NAM) to weaken the measure. When Congress approved acid rain prevention
legislation, he represented one of the worst corporate offenders, the Indiana
Public Service utility company. The company liked his work so much that
it put him on its board of directors. When public interest groups called
on Democrat congress members to put an end to the Office of Management
and Budget's secret manipulation of federal regulations, Eizenstat represented
a coalition composed of the US Chamber of Commerce, the NAM and aerospace,
electronics, construction and computers companies that opposed such reforms.
When major banks wanted to lobby for deregulation of their industry, they
hired Eizenstat. Powell, Goldstein's banking clients include Chase Manhattan
and the Association of Bank Holding Companies. Eizenstat is now US ambassador
in the European Union.
Without any doubt, the advisers, courtesans and court jesters of the Clinton '96 campaign have a bright four years ahead of them, either as mercenary lobbyists in the private sector or as high-ranking officials in a second Clinton term. Here are six of the top Clinton '96 campaign advisers:
* SUSAN THOMASES. Lobbyist with the New York firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, whose clients include Isuzu Motors, J.P. Morgan & Co., Sony, Westinghouse and Yamaha. She testified in the Whitewater hearings.
* MIKE BERMAN. Close friend of the First Couple and president of the Duberstein Group, whose clients include Goldman Sachs, Aetna Life & Casualty, the Health Leadership Council (created to thrash Clinton's timid attempts at health care reform), Monsanto, Shell, Time Warner and United Airlines. Berman helped set up the Presidential Legal Expense Trust to help cover the Clintons' legal bills in the Whitewater case and the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit.
* ANNE WEXLER. Carter White House aide and adviser to the Clinton '92 campaign. She heads the Wexler Group, which has represented General Motors, Matsushita, ARCO, AT&T, Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, Sega and the Polish government. This firm ran the USA*NAFTA corporate coalition and was hired by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association to axe Clinton's attempts to impose drug cost controls. Wexler's husband is Joseph Duffy, director of the US Information Agency.
* CHARLIE BAKER. Strategist in the '92 campaign. Baker has lobbied for clients like The Wexler Group, USA*NAFTA and General Electric. He is currently a lawyer at Hill & Barlow and also works with the Dewey Square Group, a political consulting firm.
* TOMMY BOGGS. A partner in Patton, Boggs & Blow, one of the most powerful law firms in the United States. PB&B has represented, General Electric, Waste Management (WMX), American Express, Sony, Toshiba, Yamaha, Mitsubishi, ARCO, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chrysler, Pennzoil, Shell and the governments of Oman and Gabon.
PB&B was linked to the corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). It represented the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which owned 70% of BCCI, as well as Sheik Zayed, one of the bank's main figures. As of 1992, PB&B was caretaker of Zayed's real estate portfolio, valued then at $1 billion. Boggs himself was on the board of the now defunct National Bank of Washington, whose investors and shareholders had a number of BCCI ties.
In the 70's Boggs persuaded the federal government to give Chrysler a bailout loan, earning the gratitude of the auto company as well as of the United Auto Workers. A decade later he jumped the fence, representing car importers. According to political analyst William Greider, "the Automobile Import Dealers Association successfully hammered Chrylser and the UAW on trade issues and its Autopac pumped $2.6 million into 1988 congressional races, money that Boggs helped direct to the right places". Boggs was also a member of the all-star legal team hired by Frank Lorenzo to bust the Eastern Airlines strike.
Boggs and his firm have a close relationship with various totalitarian regimes. In the early 80's PB&B represented the brutal dictatorship of general Romeo Lucas Garcia in Guatemala, which was one of the most murderous in that country's recent history. Boggs personally represented Amigos del Pais, a group of Guatemalan landowners linked to death squads and to the most extremist elements in the army. Boggs lobbied in Washington against the Carter era restrictions on weapons sales to the Guatemalan army. According to Ken Silverstein and Alexander Cockburn, Boggs argued that Guatemala "was a nation deserving of sympathy, particularly as it faced 'economic, social and insurgent difficulties'".
In January 1991 PB&B partner David Todd was hired by then Guatemalan president Jorge Serrano, who would be overthrown two years later. Only months before, American Inn keeper Michael DeVine and anthropologist Myrna Mack were murdered by the Guatemalan army, and in december of 1990 the Santiago de Atitlan massacre took place, in which the army fired on Tzutujil Indians. According to Americas Watch, during the Serrano regime, "government forces continued to commit torture, murder and disappearances with impunity". However, Todd had nothing but praises for Serrano in Washington DC, and even helped spread disinformation on the DeVine case.
The Guatemala Sugar Growers Association, which is linked to death squads, was also signed on as a PB&B client in the early 80's. The account was handled by none other than Ron Brown, who was then simultaneously Democratic National Committee chairman. Another PB&B account handled by Brown was that of Haitian president-for-life Jean-Claude Duvalier. Brown advised the Clinton '92 campaign and the following year became US secretary of commerce. He died in a plane crash in Croatia in 1996.
* VERNON JORDAN, a partner in the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, whose clients include American Airlines, AT&T, Mazda, MCA, Time Warner, McDonnell Douglas, Westinghouse, Pepsico, Upjohn, Bechtel, Pfizer, Enron and the Norwegian government. Jordan sits on the boards of ten transnational corporations, eight of which are Akin, Gump clients, among them Amercian Express, Bankers Trust NY, Dow Jones, JC Penney, RJR Nabisco, Union Carbie and Xerox. He is also a trustee of the Ford Foundation.
Akin, Gump's man to watch is Robert Strauss, who chaired the Democratic National Committee in the 70's and was US Trade Representative under Carter. After the defeat of 1980, Strauss and Clinton founded the Democratic Leadership Council, whose mission is to move the party to the right. Its mission is generously funded by corporations like Dow Chemical and Prudential Bache. From 1991 to 1992 he was ambassador in Moscow, where he became good friends with Boris Yeltsin. According to William Greider, "it was widely understood that Strauss would be busy arranging deals for American business to develop markets and resources in the newly liberated republics". Upon his return, Strauss formed the US-Russia Business Council to promote US investment in Russia. Its members, mostly Akin, Gump clients, enjoyed direct access to commerce secretary Ron Brown and receive lavish attention from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import bank.
The
Great American Democracy is a myth without substance, as more and more
Americans are learning. The skyrocketing cost of political campaigning
leads candidates to grovel to the ruling class families, and the corporations
they control, for funding. This forces them to shift their positions on
major issues to make them appealing to elite funders. Lobbyists from the
major corporations offer their services to the campaigns, sometimes as
unpaid "volunteers", to see to it that their clients' interests are taken
care of. Latin American countries should be careful not to imitate this
corrupt and elitist political system.
The author is a Puerto Rican journalist and a research associate at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont. You can find more of his articles in PUERTO RICO NEWS.
Sources:
Center for Public Integrity. Private Parties: Political Party Leadership in Washington's Mercenary Culture. 1992.
Center for Public Integrity. The Buying of the President. 1996.
Center for Public Integrity. Under the Influence. 1996.
Alexander Cockburn y Ken Silverstein. Washington Babylon. Verso, 1996.
William Greider. Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Peter Truell y Larry Gurwin. False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI. Houghton Mifflin, 1992.