  
|
| |||||||||
|
"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Microsoft's hired gun
- - - - - - - - - - - -
April 12, 2000 | The New York Times reported Tuesday that Microsoft hired Reed to get Bush to support Microsoft's position in the Justice Department's antitrust case if he wins the November presidential election. Reed signed on with Microsoft in the fall of 1998, but stayed on the company's payroll after he became a senior advisor to Bush's presidential campaign in 1999. Reed's consulting firm, Century Strategies, released a statement Tuesday stating that Reed has never asked Bush to take a position on the government's antitrust case against Microsoft.
"Ralph said it was an error on his part," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. "Neither the governor nor the campaign has been talked to or personally lobbied by anyone at Ralph's firm about Microsoft." Given the "I didn't do it and I'll never do it again" apology that Reed issued late Tuesday afternoon and the stony-faced denials coming out of Bush headquarters in Austin, Texas, one can safely assume that the Bush people weren't supposed to have heard about it either. But just what was going on here anyway? Given the grief the software colossus has been getting from the Clinton Justice Department over its alleged anti-competitive practices, it's really no surprise that Microsoft has leaned increasingly toward the sort of anti-regulatory, laissez-faire economic policy commonly espoused by Republicans. But Reed is known principally not for tax cuts but for opposition to abortion, gay rights and other tenets of the Christian conservative agenda. So what gives? What is a cosmopolitan outfit like Microsoft doing hooking up with Pat Robertson's former right-hand man? Reed was always more of a pol than a preacher, even in his heyday at the Christian Coalition. A young Republican political operative before he ever got involved with Christian conservative politics, Reed came to evangelical Christianity both as a personal religious commitment and as a strategy for mobilizing conservative voters. When Reed took the job of executive director at the Christian Coalition in 1989 it was little more than the organizational apparatus left over from Pat Robertson's unsuccessful 1988 presidential bid. By the 1990s, however, it had become one of the most powerful organized interest groups in American politics, due in no small part to Reed's combination of rhetorical and organizational skills. Since Reed's departure in 1997 the organization has gone into eclipse, with diminishing political influence and persistent financial troubles, a situation which was both a cause and an effect of Reed's departure. After the 1996 election, Reed seems to have realized that the Christian Coalition's best days might be behind it. And his departure greatly hastened the process. After leaving, Reed founded Century Strategies, a political consulting firm in Atlanta. What's really amazing about Microsoft's decision to hire Reed, though, is not that a culturally liberal, cosmopolitan company like Microsoft would hire the cherubic former public face of the religious right. What's really shocking is that Reed can still get clients to pay top dollar for his services even though his track record as a political consultant has been quite dismal.
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
More news on 
Next page |