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The Detroit Free Press reveals that Bruce Andrews, Ford’s vice president of government relations, is leaving the Detroit automaker to become the general counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The committee’s remit includes highway safety, international automotive trade agreements and, uh, transportation. The Freep dutifully reports that “Ford had brought Andrews on board to strengthen its ties with Democratic lawmakers.” Mission accomplished, I’d say.
12 Comments on “Reasons To Be Cynical Pt. 1: Ford Lobbyist Joins Senate Transportation Committee...”
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Not so fast.
Andrew Card, Bush 43’s Chief of Staff, was Detroit’s head lobbyist in Washington before joining up with Bush.
Sometimes a cigar is… just a cigar.
More proof Ford will be asking for a handout…despite what Big Al says…
Proof that driving a purple Geo doesn’t mean you’ll never make it big on K Street.
Andrew Card, Bush 43’s Chief of Staff, was Detroit’s head lobbyist in Washington before joining up with Bush.
And that of course explains why Bush certainly didn’t ignore a Congressional vote and give them a bail… wait. Shit.
this isn’t a comment on this article…
how come their seem to be hardly any reviews recently? i’m sure there used to be 3 a week and now it’s lucky if there is 1 a week.
not to mention the G37x vs 328xi review going bye-bye
How many of these effing stories need to come out for the masses to light some torches, grab some pitch forks and dump a whole lot of tea in a harbor somewhere?
Seriously, this is starting to look just like the cronyism that got Bush in hot water. This old boys club bullshit is killing us.
Reading the headline, one could, at first, think that a Ford Lobbyist joined the Senate Transportation Committee. Then I discovered that a lawyer, who had experience at Ford, is now employed by the Senate Transportation Committee.
We have three branches of government. Each branch has its own hiring rules. I don’t consider it cronyism for the Senate or the House to hire someone from the private sector to advise them.
I DO see it as cronyism if the Executive branch hires someone from the private sector to RUN a department that makes its own rules which do not need to be passed by a legislative body.
A good example of this would be Gale Norton, hired by Bush to head the Agriculture Department after working as a lobbyist for the beef industry. She had the power to single-handedly decide to not test for mad cow disease.
Conclusion: The headline was not precise, the cronyism issue has nothing to do with the current administration, and there seems nothing particularly wrong with having a lawyer with industry experience advise the legislative branch.
Revolving door…
I guess it’s better than the appointment of a pharmaceutical executive to the FDA, as has happened in the past.
Well, it’s all on top of the “No ex-lobbyists in this administration” lie.
Welcome to the new transparency, comrades.
I’m not a Democrate or Republican basher but I’ve said it before – We would have seen more change from McCain than Obama. Obama is going to give us the same crew and the same governemt we had under the Clinton administration – without the sex jokes.
Is that bad or is that good? It’s not for me to decide. I just comment.
Is the Senate Transportation Committee the same as the Executive Branch? Is the committee hiring a consultant the same as Obama hiring someone??
carlos.negros: We have three branches of government. Each branch has its own hiring rules. I don’t consider it cronyism for the Senate or the House to hire someone from the private sector to advise them.
I DO see it as cronyism if the Executive branch hires someone from the private sector to RUN a department that makes its own rules which do not need to be passed by a legislative body.
A good example of this would be Gale Norton, hired by Bush to head the Agriculture Department after working as a lobbyist for the beef industry. She had the power to single-handedly decide to not test for mad cow disease.
Shorter version of the above paragraphs:
Congress is controlled by the Democrats, so this is okay.
The Bush Administration was Republican, however, so this was bad.