The PR Papers
Levine, Art
The PR Papers Watching a Washington lobbyist con a would-be client annotations by Art Levine This Washington branch of a Minneapolis law firm has over the years boasted a top-tier client...
...other cabinet officers in Washington f r meetings with the international financial institutions, the Congress, the White House, the various think-tanks such a the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Strategic and Internat onal Studies, Woodrow Wilson Institute and numerous press riefings including a press conference at the Press Club and ind'vidual meetings with reporters and syndicated columnists...
...His firm just doesn’t do a good job,’’ one conservative Hill staffer says of Blatchford...
...Good publicity, comfy trade agreements, and their fair share of U.S...
...My own background includes Director of the U.S...
...This type of activity can generate a great deal of good wil and interest on the part of the country and it can surely take advantage of a presidential visit which is a truly unique opportunity to get maximum exposure and that opportunity should never be lost...
...Blatchford isn’t quite the media sophisticate he purports to be, however...
...Blatchford will make sure rich Venezuelans will meet congressmen who will help them get U.S...
...In 1990, a congressional aide recalls, Blatchfords lobbying team made a wrongheaded effort to enlist the support of the late Massachusetts Rep...
...There are three mentions For example, from January to September of last year I have a of hearings on the debt, one including the riots that went on, one is a mention of a study by Venezuela of the Nicaraguan electoral process and three mention the nomination of Eric Javits...
...Blatchford is attempting to con his would-be client into believing that the media and Congress will breathlessly follow such ‘‘news events” as “rescheduling debL” Actually, there have to be hundreds of natives-or one American nu-lain on the streets before American opinion-makers become interested in L a t h America, and even then, their interest is fleeting...
...Hence this “pitch” letter, with its message’and context decoded...
...visits to New York to see the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times...
...If they’re paying him a nickel, it’s too much...
...Of the 579 items which appeared in the Congressional Record only eight are about Venezuela...
...He accidentally gave this reporter a copy of this memo along with a pile of background papers on El Salvador...
...A spring proposal gives corporations and countries plenty of time to award contracts before summer vacations and the onset of the next fmcal year...
...The problem with this approach was that Conte was a liberal Catholic totally outraged by the killing in November 1989 of six Jesuit priests...
...But before the country-r the lobbyists-get rich, O’Connor & Hannan (OM) has to create the need and fuel the greed...
...Art Levine is a contributor to Spy and a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly...
...So, we have excellent contacts in the committees in both the House and Senate...
...O&H has its finger on the pulse of the Hill...
...contracts and trade benefits...
...This includes delegations visiting here from various Latin American capitals, their schedules, their comments, results of Congressional hearings on Latin American issues including drugs, Central America, debt negotiations...
...Part of the duties of the lobbyist that we can provide for President Andres Perez would be daily or semi-weekly summaries in Spanish of going-ons on Capitol Hill, any legislation that is introduced that affects Latin America, trade preferences, trade cases, which is a specialty of mine, all political developments, speeches on the floor of the Congress...
...But that doesn’t necessarily lead to political savvy...
...HiU and Knowlton got $10 million for its Kuwait-related account...
...Last year, before an important vote regarding El Salvadoran military aid, he boasted, “We’ve got everything in he,” and in a strategy memo picked a number of moderate Democrats, like Al Gore, as “best bets” to support the El Salvadoran government...
...O&H is plugged into the Washington power circuit Unfortunately, that still doesn’t help Blatchford and his crew provide consistently accurate political information to their clients...
...foreign aid-plus the access that makes those windfalls happen...
...The PR Papers Watching a Washington lobbyist con a would-be client annotations by Art Levine This Washington branch of a Minneapolis law firm has over the years boasted a top-tier client list, from Coca Cola to Westinghouse...
...Among my colleagues at O'Connor & Hannan are a former U.S...
...But Third World regimes are an especially lucrative sort of client, bringing in annual fees ranging from $100,000 to $1 million...
...Silvio Conte, then the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, in fighting efforts to reduce El Salvadoran military aid...
...Government of Venezuela to handle several issues: Monitoring events in Washington...
...Hiring O&H means no tariffs and more markets for your country’s products...
...list of all of the comments made in the Congress about Latin America...
...That’s it for the Congress’ interest in Venezuela...
...On this team we have numerous people with contacts in the press, public affairs and we write continuing news bulletins to Capitol Hill...
...But what Blatchford doesn’t mention is that O&H’s efforts on behalf of El Salvador, perhaps its most visible foreign client, aren’t well regarded by several Hill aides, even those sympathetic to the Cristiani government...
...An ear to the ground for the President on the going-ons in Washington...
...What do these countries think they’re paying for...
...I have been active in the Bush campaigns and the Republican Party whereas my colleague, former Congressman Jim Swington, has been active in the Democratic Party and our founding member, Pat O'Connor, was Treasurer of the Democratic National Party and a very close friend of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale...
...After receiving the recruiting call from O M , a shocked Conte aide asked a Hill colleague, “Are they kfdding...
...O&H will work hard on the Hill for the money...
...The pro-military proposal-to table an anti-military amendment by Senator ford projected a winning majority of 52 votes...
...Senator (Republican), a former Congressman (Democrat) and many who have served either in the White House or Congressional staff...
...Attached is a sample program that we prepared for a President-elect last year and, in fact, I have just come from a luncheon in the Senate which we organized for a Vice Minister of another country...
...Venezuela did, ultimately, win minor attention this year, when a military coup, fueled by anger over corruption and economic suffering, nearly toppled President PGrez...
...None of them ended up voting as O&H expected...
...Regular summaries to the President on a daily or semi-weekly basis about all bills, rules, regulations, speeches on the floor of the Congress, studies done by think-tanks, press releases given out by the President or the Vice President on issues that would be of interest to the President of Venezuela...
...They’ll get President Perez on “Nightline”-or at least ‘‘“his Week with David Brinkley...
...Peace Corps, Under Secretary of Commerce and member of one of the original steering committees of Bush for President back in 1979...
Vol. 24 • April 1992 • No. 4
