The American Spectator

p> NO “I” IN THIS TEAM br> When Henry Paulson left the lofty and highly profitable heights of Goldman Sachs to serve as President Bush’s third Treasury Secretary, there was much talk among the financial lobbying community in Washington that Paulson has elicited a number of concessions from the White House in return for taking the job. /p>

Paulson was thought to have turned down White House offers to fill the Treasury post at least two times before accepting it. “Here in Washington and up in New York the word was that Paulson was pressing for a very different role as Treasury Secretary than [John] Snow or [Paul] O’Neill had,” says a lobbyist in Washington for a large financial services firm.

In fact there were rumors that Paulson had received promises from the Administration that it would re-open policy discussions on global warming and U.S. environmental policy and allow Paulson a role in those discussions. Other rumors had Paulson requesting that he be allowed to chair the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

But none of this talk has been borne out, and in fact Paulson appears to have the same standing as just about every other Bush Cabinet official. Exhibit A: his chief of staff. A number of folks assumed that Paulson would bring in his own people, but like previous high profile corporate types who have taken jobs with this Administration, Paulson is said to be getting a Bush insider for his top manager, this time, former White House and State Department senior communications aide staffer Jim Wilkinson.

Many eyebrows were raised when former Kellogg CEO Carlos Gutierrez came on board as Commerce Secretary and wasn’t allowed to bring in his own chief of staff. Instead he picked up outgoing Commerce Secretary Don Evans’ chief of staff and then was handed Clare Buchan as the replacement. Buchan had served a chief communications staffer in the White House before heading over to Commerce.

“It’s not a coincidence that the White House places communications people in those positions. Gutierrez has been a good messenger for the Administration,” says a former Bush Administration official. “Wilkinson especially is one of the best communications guys this Administration has. He’ll help Paulson immeasurably.”

p> MOVEON TO ANOTHER DEFEAT br> Another issue, another loss for MoveOn.org. Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee cleared major telecom reform legislation that included a consumer focused approach to so-called “net neutrality,” an issue being pushed by big high-tech and Internet companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and e-Bay. /p>