Faircloth visit has GOP on defensive

[Judi Lynn]

Published: Feb 16, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Feb 16, 2006 03:11 AM


Faircloth visit has GOP on defensive
Now a lobbyist, he sits in on meeting



Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press
Republicans may change the rules allowing former senators to attend weekly GOP luncheon meetings after former Sen. Lauch Faircloth attended a session while lobbying a bill pending on the floor.

Faircloth, a North Carolina Republican, is a registered lobbyist for companies such as Honeywell and the Dow Chemical Co., which are advocating passage of a bill to limit the liability of companies facing asbestos-related claims.

He attended Tuesday's luncheon, just hours before a crucial vote on the bill, which would end decades of lawsuits against manufacturers and their insurers, potentially saving them great sums of money.
(snip)

The episode came as lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill -- the House and Senate -- are examining ways to reform lobbying rules in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal. Just two weeks ago, the House voted to take away access to the floor and the House gym from former members who are now registered lobbyists.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/400656.html

[KT2000]

1. Lauch Faircloth

nothing subtle about that guy :puke:

[LostinVA]

4. Lauch Faircloth: major tool AND turncoat

[salin]

2. The hill GOP demonstrate again, that they just do not "get"

that Americans are growing uneasy by the pandering to Lobbyists and the fact that Lobbyists (former Senators or not) give much greater voice to their corporate clients than the voice that constituents have; they don't "get" that this is far more than Abramoff, DeLay, Ney, Cunningham, et. al. Their deafness to the discontent out in districts and states continues to point to a growing likelihood of a "season of discontent" at the November elections.

[formercia]

3. Funny how Halliburton doesn't get a mention

they probably have the biggest liability.

[acmejack]

6. Don't forget the shipyards.

Lots of asbestos on ships.

[Warpy]

5. We need to nail the revolving door between Congress and

K Street shut. We need to make sure there is a time period during which anyone in the Pentagon or any other government agency needs to find another way to make a living before s/he joins a lobbying firm. We need to nail the door between the SEC and Wall Street shut forever.

If we don't do this, we'll be back where we started very quickly, no matter what other bandaid reforms are enacted.

There are plenty of ways for an ousted Congressman to make an honest living. There are plenty of jobs (so they tell us, anyway) for government officials who want a return to the private sector. Using their former positions to gain advantage is ethically wrong. It has to stop.

[BlueManDude]

7. Faircloth's role in the Great Whitewater Hoax...

"In July 1994, Senator Lauch Faircloth and Judge David Sentelle lunched together in the quietly elegant Senate dining room. Just days later, a three judge panel headed by Sentelle removed Robert B. Fiske Jr., a moderate Republican, from his position as independent counsel in the Whitewater affair-and replaced him with an active Republican partisan, Kenneth Starr.
Sentelle was supposed to be making his decisions free from political influence. Faircloth was a leader of the Republican charge against the Clintons on Whitewater; just weeks before, he had written Attorney General Janet Reno to complain about Fiske. So the lunch raised considerable controversy: Had Faircloth used the occasion to lobby or pressure Sentelle? Fiske's axing-after nine months and $2.5 million worth of work that had yet to produce material damaging to the Clintons-was precisely what Faircloth was after.

A year later came the news that approximately five months after the lunch and Fiske's replacement, Faircloth had hired Jane Oldham Sentelle, the judge's wife, as a receptionist for his Senate office. She had started in January 1995 at a salary of $20,000, which was later raised to $22,500."