By The Prowler on 12.17.08 @ 6:09AM
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.
topics:
Lobbying, The Obama Administration
