While Dick Gephardt often flip-flopped on issues during his political carrer, such as abortion and taxes, and exercised horrible judgment in rallying support for the Iraq War Resolution, I always had a soft spot for him because I believed he had the economic concerns of workers and average Americans at heart. Well, it turns out that Gephardt has a wallet where his heart should be. He's become one of the preminent lobbyists for the very powerful economic forces that seek to exploit those very workers and average citizens. The ones that seek to prevent meaningful health care reform and financial regulation. And the ones that seek to implement, and take advantage of, privatization.
Have you no shame, Mr. Gephardt? Or is shame just the cost of doing business?
In 2003 he harshly condemned corporate crime, which he said "ruined people's lives for selfishness and greed," and launched his candidacy claiming, "Every proposal I'm making, every idea I'm advancing has a single, central purpose: to revive a failing economy and give working Americans the help and security they need." So why, six years later, was he on Capitol Hill representing one of the biggest players in the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression? And further, why was he recently working for Visa to kill credit card reform, helping Peabody Energy stymie climate change legislation and consulting for UnitedHealth Group alongside Tom Daschle to block meaningful healthcare reform?
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In a town where everyone seemingly has a price, Gephardt has distinguished himself, selling his reputation as a pro-labor, pro-universal healthcare, pro-environment expert and advocate to his new corporate masters, giving their efforts to kill and maim reforms a familiar, friendly face in the Democratic establishment. As a result, Gephardt has become a highly sought-after and very effective lobbyist. He has also betrayed nearly every principle he once claimed to hold.
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In July Gephardt served as keynote speaker for the Clean Coal Technology Conference in Hope, Arkansas. All the big industry players were there, but several environmental groups, like the Sierra Club, were denied invitations. One speaker complained about excessive environmental regulation, while Mike Ross, the Blue Dog representative now famous for giving the White House daily headaches on healthcare, dropped by to reassure with platitudes like "coal is part of the solution to America's energy problems."
Then there is Peabody's labor record. According to a July 2006 report prepared by Religious Leaders for Coalfield Justice and Interfaith Worker Justice, the company worked hard to strip its mines of unionized workers, with CEO Greg Boyce saying in 2005, "We have reduced the intensity of our unionization, and we would continue on that path." The Rev. Theodore Erickson, a veteran of several coal-country labor disputes, told me that Peabody has been "aggressively decimating its unions" since the 1990s by closing unionized mines and opening new facilities nearby as a minority stakeholder. "Once the mine is fully staffed with nonunion people," Erickson explained, "Peabody will buy the remainder...and the mine is forever nonunion." The Sierra Club has joined union organizers at several recent St. Louis shareholder meetings in joint protests over Peabody's environmental and labor policies. "They're vehemently antiunion," says Nilles.
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With Tom Daschle, Gephardt has advised UnitedHealth Group, one of America's largest private insurers, which has waged a strong campaign against a public option. Since 2007 Gephardt has served on the advisory board of Extend Health, another insurance company, graduating to the board of directors earlier this year. However, his biggest involvement has been with the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition to a large lobbying contract with the Medicines Company, Gephardt serves as chair of the Council for American Medical Innovation (CAMI), formed by and affiliated with PhRMA. It debuted in March, and in this capacity he has hired his own firm to lobby for the organization, to push "the innovation agenda," according to lobbying reports. The phrase is lobby-speak for attempts by the pharmaceutical industry to extend patents and block cheaper generic drugs from the market.
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The government-lobbyist revolving door is nothing new in Washington, D.C. But seeing a former, supposed, economic populist turn around and become a corporate whore and shill takes that revolving door to a new low. People like Gephardt are why Democrats are having trouble enacting progressive legislation, and why they're having so much trouble changing the culture of corruption in Washington.