Posted on 08/22/2006 7:16:36 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
WASHINGTON - Three times this year, a lobbyist sought help from Rep. Christopher Cannon for his clients and got it. The lobbyist was the congressman's brother, Joseph Cannon.
The Utah lawmaker acknowledges helping his brother's clients, including pressing Congress last month to intervene in a business dispute over an Internet contract estimated to be worth as much as $1.3 billion.
"If my wife decided to lobby, then we would probably say, 'No talking to my office.' I just don't see my brother in the same category," Cannon, R-Utah, told The Associated Press.
Cannon has a financial interest in his brother's success: The lobbyist owes him more than $250,000, according to the lawmaker's financial disclosure reports.
There are no U.S. laws prohibiting relatives from lobbying lawmakers. House ethics rules require lawmakers to behave in ways that "reflect creditably" on Congress, avoid any special favors for family members and avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.
"A lot of people I know are lobbyists," said Rep. Cannon, who has been elected five times. "I would put Joe in that category, not as a family member."
Some ethics experts rejected Cannon's distinction.
"It's an obvious conflict of interest," said Wendell Rawls Jr., acting executive director at the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group. "It's an obvious use of an insider position to further the best interest of a family member."
Fred Werthheimer, head of the Democracy 21 group that endorses lobbying and campaign finance reforms, said Cannon has created appearance problems — months before midterm elections — inside a Congress already tainted by lobbying scandals and bribery investigations.
"When a member of Congress starts taking action based on the requests of a brother or spouse, you create the impression that the action may be taking place to provide a financial benefit for the family rather than to carry out proper public policy," he said. "This is the kind of appearance problem no member needs."
Dozens of Republican and Democratic lawmakers have children, siblings or spouses who work as lobbyists. Some told the AP they prohibit relatives, even siblings, from lobbying them or anyone working for them.
Rep. Nick Rahall (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., whose sister is a lobbyist for nuclear and energy interests, does not allow her to lobby his office. Likewise, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay limited access to his office by his estranged brother, Randy, after 1996, when Randy DeLay's lobbying activities prompted an ethics complaint that later was dismissed. DeLay, R-Texas, left Congress earlier this year under an ethics cloud.
Joseph Cannon, who also is chairman of the Utah Republican party, is his congressman-brother's one-time business partner. He leads a team of 10 lobbyists at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a law and lobbying firm. He represents nearly a dozen lobbying clients and specializes in environmental cases.
In the Internet dispute, Rep. Cannon joined with three other lawmakers last month at his brother's urging to press for a congressional hearing. They signed a letter that expressed concerns about a proposed contract — which is subject to approval by the Bush administration — between the Internet's primary oversight body and VeriSign Inc., a $4.2 billion California company.
Joseph Cannon is a lobbyist for a competing company, Network Solutions Inc. That company sells Web addresses and opposes price increases it would pay to VeriSign under the pending agreement.
"My job was to talk with Chris," the lobbyist brother told AP. "After I talked with him, the fact is, we hardly ever talked about it after that. I don't spend much time lobbying my brother on things. I can't use him just because he's my brother to go do something; it's got to be something he's got a legitimate interest in."
Rep. Cannon, chairman of the House Judiciary commercial law subcommittee, said he has closely followed Internet issues. "He had a client. I had an interest," the lawmaker explained.
Joseph Cannon's lobbying firm helped draft the July 7 letter his brother signed asking Rep. Lamar Smith (news, bio, voting record), who heads the House Judiciary Internet subcommittee, to hold a hearing. Smith, R-Texas, said he has not yet decided whether to conduct such an oversight hearing.
Joseph Cannon said he has lobbied his brother on other occasions, twice involving higher education issues. Rep. Cannon's home district in Provo, Utah, includes Brigham Young University, which last year paid Joseph Cannon roughly $70,000 as its Washington lobbyist. Both brothers graduated from the university.
Joseph Cannon sought his brother's help earlier this year establishing a "complexity center" involving Brigham Young and the University of Utah. Joseph Cannon said it was to be run by a defense contractor, System of Systems Analytics Inc. of Chantilly, Va.. The contractor employs Joseph Cannon's Utah-based company, The Western Standard Publishing Company Inc., as a subcontractor.
Joseph Cannon said he disclosed his own business relationship with the project, which both he and Rep. Cannon said was scuttled in its early stages.
Rep. Cannon also favored a bill earlier this year to exempt religious colleges from certain accreditation guidelines, such as rules on discriminating against gay students and teachers and requirements for courses that conflict with the schools' philosophy.
Joseph Cannon said he sought his brother's support on behalf of Brigham Young. The House bill passed on a voice vote.
Joseph Cannon said he also introduced leaders of the Israel Policy Forum, a pro-Jewish group, to his brother and other Republicans the day fighting broke out in Lebanon earlier this summer.
"It doesn't make sense not to approach him just the way I would approach anybody else," Joseph Cannon said. "I believe his response would have been exactly the same if ... someone else from my firm had talked with him."
As for the unpaid debt to his brother, Joseph Cannon said it stems from his own unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate 14 years ago.
Joseph Cannon said he approached his brother about the Internet agreement as part of a behind-the-scenes campaign to convince lawmakers on some Senate and House committees the deal would be bad for consumers.
The agreement would permit VeriSign to increase the wholesale price it charges companies like Network Solutions for each Internet dot-com address from $6 per year to $7.86 — or more if it can justify further price increases.
In the weeks after Network Solutions hired the lobbying firm, two lobbyists there — both Democrats — contributed a combined $1,500 to Rep. Cannon's Republican campaign.
One of those lobbyists, Thomas O'Donnell, worked closely with Rep. Cannon's office on behalf of Network Solutions after June 15. O'Donnell gave $1,000 to Rep. Cannon on May 17.
O'Donnell said he gave the money because Rep. Cannon was his lobbying partner's brother and because he supports Rep. Cannon's moderate views on immigration reform, a key issue in Cannon's primary. O'Donnell said Joseph Cannon did not solicit the contribution.
Network Solutions said it was unaware of Joseph Cannon's family ties when it hired his firm in April to rally opposition to the Internet agreement.
"I, personally, and no one at Network Solutions had any idea," said the company's chief counsel, Jonathon Nevett. "I had never heard of Chris Cannon or Joe Cannon."
Nevett has publicly praised the lawmakers' request for a congressional hearing.
Network Solutions spent $80,000 on lobbying last year; VeriSign spent at least $440,000 over the same period, Senate records show.
VeriSign's Washington lobbyists include former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Ashcroft's former chief of staff, David Ayres. VeriSign's political action committee donated $1,000 to Rep. Smith in April and $1,000 to Cannon in November.
Rep. Cannon said his relationships with his brother's clients can be discerned by reviewing congressional lobbying reports. He did not mention in his July 7 letter that he was acting at his brother's request.
"The rules really come down to disclosure," the lawmaker said. "It's easy to make the connections you made between me and my brother."
Just make all interaction with representatives completely transparent....just like the SEC does with coroporate boards.......
Simcox is being viciously attacked by the DC open borders lobby and their willing toadies. They're setting up a standard that they don't adhere to themselves. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking.
In any case, Cannon has been slimy from the very beginning of his career. Everyone I've ever known who had any kind of contact with him says that with Chris there is ALWAYS a quid pro quo.
"Simcox is being viciously attacked by the DC open borders lobby and their willing toadies. "
ROFLMAO!
Personally, I only give of my money, time, or energy to specific candidates or specific projects I believe in.
As I have stated here more than once, I don't think the resources of the conservative movement are used wisely, overall. IMO, money given to most organizations or to the RNC is largely wasted, if your goal is to defeat the Left and to advance conservative ideals.
The top-down mentality of the DC-based hacks leads to a situation where the needed resources for battling the Left rarely get to where those resources are needed most, down in the trenches. Many of these people pay lip-service to "the grassroots", but they don't really believe in grassroots politics, aka "self-government". In fact, they sneer at it.
Having said that, I think that both Keyes and the Minutemen have done quite a lot for the movement, and for grassroots conservatism.
Sorry you've had a bad experience with fungible mailing lists. I hate that myself. But, you are going too far when you call the sale of mailing lists "fraudulent". It's standard practice...the same people who you are pointing a finger at vis a vis Keyes also work for the RNC, the NRA, NRTL, Heritage, etc., etc., etc. If it was fraud, they'd have all gone to jail decades ago. You might not like that fact. I may not like that fact. But it remains a fact.
Just stop. They are now exposed, and so are you.
How dare you call anyone a RINO, you phoney.
Oh man, you are splitting the sides over here.
Yeh, EV doesn't think resources are used wisely AND he doesn't like the fact that mailing lists of good hearted conservatives are bought and sold like trading cards...so what does he do? He creates his own little donation gathering and list building entitities! Why, here's just a couple of examples of EV working against the tide of scamming conservative organizations :
http://www.usbordersecurity.org/
Funny you mention "self-government" in your post above...
http://www.selfgovernment.us/
(btw, these are hosted on the same server that hosts most of Alan Keyes'organizations, does he know you had these going while working for him? Or are you in some sort of apprentice program? LOL)
Are there any other Tom? I mean, we want to make sure we know ALL the little donation gathering sites you are involved in. Help us out, because you we know you are just as upset over these little organizations are "largely wasted".
You are such a pathetic joker. You are shrinking with every post.
I have visions of EV doing all kinds of contortions under a pole as onlookers chant "How low can you go? How LOW can you go. How LOW can you GO!"
OUCH! That's tellin' him!
Your misrepresentations continue.
Lacking facts, you attack anyway.
And you as usual, lack any substantive response. Got ya.
How dare you call anyone a RINO, you phoney.
"Exposed"? LOL...Get a life, RINO.
As soon as you post something substantive, I'll give you a substantive response.
You were a lot more fun when you sided with conservatives and your current cheering section hated your guts.
You haven't given a "substantive response" since March 24, 2000.
You were a lot more fun when you sided with conservatives and your current cheering section hated your guts.
You're a nasty A$$, EV. A petty little sniveling cry baby of a man pretending to "be" somebody.
If you are the measure of an ideal conservative, then I will gladly accept you slams as not being like you. Being involved a myriad of organizations that use hot button issues to fleece God-fearing Americans is not a measure of conservatism.
Too bad you don't see that somewhere along the way you decided to "owe your soul to the company store"
Name them. Who has posted here that you are calling Registered's cheering section? Which ones of those hated his guts?
And for the record, you don't have the power to re-define conservative to suit your twisted needs.
You are a piece of. Work.
I have a very ill family member, and have been out of the loop here. I'm surprised and pretty much shocked to see your cocky self here, after having your ass royally handed to you on a platter recently.
There are many unanswered questions on previous threads. Have you checked your pings?
I'd like to see a show of hands of those here who were surprised that EV is for unlimited political donations.........LOL.
LOL, that one was just too easy. I did get a pretty good chuckle from it.
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