The appearance of impropriety
by digby
I shouldn’t even bother to dignify this, but Politico is out tonight with what I assume someone would think is a SICK BURN on Elizabeth Warren, citing her for HYPOCRISY because she opposes investor-state dispute settlement, but one time 15 years ago she was paid to stop a corporation from winning an investor-state dispute settlement case. If you don’t follow, you’re not alone.
In 1999 and 2000, the Justice Department paid Warren between $200 to $400 an hour to serve as an expert witness against a Canadian funeral home operator called Loewen Group that was seeking $725 million from the U.S. under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Her role in the case, NAFTA’s first major test of the procedure known as investor-state dispute settlement, has gotten little public attention — even as Warren has made ISDS her main line of attack against the sprawling Asia-Pacific trade deal that Obama is seeking.
There’s a pretty good reason this has gotten little public attention: because it’s not contradictory to her current position in any way. She was a legal advisor in her area of expertise, bankruptcy law, paid for by the government to defend against the expropriation of money through a trade settlement by a corporation, precisely what she’s arguing shouldn’t be allowable in future trade deals. The logic here is that she should have told the Justice Department that she was too pure to involve herself with a trade settlement process she found abhorrent, and should have therefore denied the government her expertise and helped the corporation win.
A parallel hit piece would be something like, “Warren SAYS that she hates money in politics, so why did she RAISE money to run for Senate?!?!?”
Even this former Bush trade official sees nothing in this “revelation”:
“I really don’t see any connection between her provision of expert advice to the government in Loewen and her position on ISDS in her current capacity as a U.S. senator,” said (Ted) Posner, who is a partner at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. “The advice she gave in Loewen was in her capacity as an expert on U.S. bankruptcy law. She was not acting as an expert on ISDS.”
There’s not even any reason for the Administration (I can’t pinpoint who planted this, but I can guess) to act this desperate. They secured cloture on fast track today in the Senate. Is the House vote this shaky that they need to launch a pathetic, laughable attack on Warren’s credibility?
This is pathetic, really. But hey, we’re learning new things every day. For instance, if you give money to a charity, it means you are corrupt. Or something:
“PBS NewsHour” co-anchor Judy Woodruff on Friday responded to a post from PBS ombudsman Michael Getler calling her donations to an initiative by the Clinton Foundation “a mistake.”
I’m a longtime admirer of your work, as a journalist and as ombudsman, but what you wrote was unfair. To lump what I did in 2010 under the simple heading of “Clinton” ignores the facts and the context. I gave $250 two days after the Haiti earthquake struck in 2010, to an emergency relief fund, and in response to one of the first appeals to cross my desk when we were witnessing wall-to-wall scenes of death and devastation. I am a journalist, but I also am a citizen who supports non-partisan, charitable causes when I feel so moved.
I will not be put in a position of defending the Clinton Foundation. But in early January 2010, less than one year into President Obama’s first term, while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, the tragedy hit and we were told by relief experts that the quickest way to get a contribution to the victims, was through the William J. Clinton Foundation. It had a longstanding involvement in Haiti before the quake. To repeat, my gift was made out to the Haiti Relief Fund, not the general Clinton Foundation.
On Thursday, Getler wrote a post that called into question Woodruff’s decision to make a donation to the Haiti Relief Fund shortly after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck the country. He said she erred in making the donation, “even in a small amount and with to the Haiti Relief Fund shortly after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck the country.
Woodruff’s donation to the Clinton Foundation charity — and contributions from several others in the media — came to light after it was revealed that ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation to fight AIDS and deforestation.
But it’s the appearance of impropriety that is so important, right? Sure Woodruff may have just been trying to help some earthquake victims but it looks bad because Clinton.
This, on the other hand, is a-ok:
DR. CHARLIE ROSE’S WASHINGTON: Charlie Rose, the man who’s always working, got to just enjoy himself last night – tieless, and rocking sneakers. D.C. friends walked down a red carpet to the elegant terrace of the rarely seen estate of Franco Nuschese, owner of Café Milano, who was honoring Charlie with a dinner celebration and garden party after he delivered the Georgetown commencement address and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters.
Franco’s three and a half acres, in the Northwest D.C. neighborhood of Forest Hills, include a view down the same hill as the Italian ambassador’s residence. In a toast, Charlie said Franco is the best traveling companion in Italy – aside from two of the evening’s guests, CIA Director John Brennan and former deputy CIA director Michael Morell.
–SPOTTED: Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, Don Baer and Nancy Bard, Bret and Amy Baier, CIA Director John Brennan and Kathy Pokluda Brennan, Charlie Cook, Jan Crawford, Henry Davis, E.J. Dionne, Tom Donilon, Jim and Deb Fallows, Tom and Ann Friedman, Georgetown College Dean Chester Gillis, Tammy Haddad, Al Hunt and Judy Woodruff, Walter and Cathy Isaacson, Chris and Jennifer Isham, Vernon and Ann Jordan, Tommy Kaplan, Jonathan Karl, Katty Kay, Samantha Kulok, Jennifer Lawson of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Margot McGinness, Frank Milwee, Michael Morell, Norah O’Donnell and Geoff Tracy, Roxanne Roberts, John F.W. Rogers, Sally Quinn, Hilary Rosen and Campbell Spencer, Chelsea Royal, David Sanger, Bob and Pat Schieffer, Justin Smith, Ellen Tauscher, George Tenet and Stephanie Glakas-Tenet, Yvette Vega, Chitra Wadhwani and more.
–WHAT FRANCO SERVES AT HOME: hand-carved prosciutto; eggplant parmesan; roasted sea scallops, eggplant and basil; buffalo mozzarella; pecorino cheeses; roasted veal in tuna sauce; assorted cold cuts; calamarata pasta, fresh oregano, tomatoes and zucchini; oysters; steamed shellfish with vegetables; mixed greens salad; octopus, peaches, green beans and mint salad; tuna, salmon and amberjack tartar; plus a bar and desserts.
You’ll recognize many of the media stars and government players. And then there’s the Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba from the United Arab Emirates; Don Baer worldwide chair and chief executive officer of the strategic communications firm Burson-Marsteller and chair of the research firm Penn Schoen Berland; John F.W. Rogers who “might be one of the most important people at Goldman Sachs.”
I sure hope nobody was hit up for a charitable contribution over their small plates of roasted sea scallops and amberjack tartar. One wouldn’t want to give the appearance of impropriety.
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