Carol Browner’s lobbying comes neatly wrapped.
Despite denials from her soon-to-be former employers, the Albright Group, former Clinton EPA head and soon-to-be climate change czar Carol Browner served as a de facto lobbyist for Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab Emirate of Dubai, which arranged to buy a company operating six major U.S. ports, including New York and New Jersey.
Browner told the Obama transition team that she never served as a lobbyist in her time in Washington, and her employer, the Albright Group, owned by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, also said that the firm does not lobby. But in 2006, when the Dubai Ports deal set off a political firestorm, it was Browner taking her clients from Senate office to Senate office looking to build support for the deal.
“She can call what she does whatever she wants, but she was clearly lobbying my boss on the issue,” says a Democrat Senate aide, whose boss ultimately supported the deal. “She was in the room with her clients and the Senator. She pressed him for support. I think that counts as lobbying.”
Browner clearly knew what she was up against, because according to a former Albright Group employee, now working on Obama transition issues at the Department of State, Browner told her Dubai Ports clients that the work to gain support for the port deal was so complicated and controversial that it required an experienced lobbying shop.
She recommended her then-fiancé Tom Downey and his firm, but did not disclose, according to another lobbyist, who worked the Ports deal and is familiar with the situation, her relationship to Downey to the clients. “[Dubai Ports] found out after Downey had been retained. It was an embarrassing situation, but there wasn’t much they could do about it. They were neck deep,” says the lobbyist. Browner continued to work on the deal even after Downey was retained.
Downey represents a number of different clients that will create conflict problems for Browner, many of them in the energy business. Browner, though, won’t have to answer any difficult questions, due to the fact that her White House job is not Senate-confirmable.
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
JAZZ| 12.17.08 @ 8:48AM
Santa seeks bailout. Stocks tumble.
Andrew| 12.17.08 @ 8:48AM
Just remember that she wasn't a registered lobbyist. Being an illegal lobbyist apparently meets the definition of "no lobbyist will work in my administration." This is going to be a fun 4 years.
Jack Mahoggoff| 12.17.08 @ 4:01PM
"This is going to be a fun 4 years. "
..now if he could just get a hummer from an intern in the oval office.....
Alan Brooks| 12.17.08 @ 8:51PM
Dubai Ports.
Sounds like a really progressive firm.
links of london jewellery | 9.10.09 @ 10:32PM
Thanks for your information, i have read it, very good!