Disclosure: I worked for the Lamont campaign doing web design and production and some writing for the official blog (from 9/5/06 to 11/07/06).
Friday, June 02, 2006
The Nail in Big Oil Joe's Coffin
From the beginning of this campaign, in desperate need of anything to convince Democratic voters that he is in fact a Democrat, Sen. Lieberman has pushed his stance on the environment as the single most important of his progressive bona-fides. (In his excellent interview with Jonathan Singer, Ned made sure to point out his disappointment with the senator's changing stance).
But it's tough for the senator to pull this off when he was the only New England Democrat to vote for the Cheney energy bill in 2005.
And it's even tougher when, at the very same time the energy bill was being debated in the senate, Lieberman Communications Director Matt Gobush left his job...
to become "Manager of Executive Communications"...
for Exxon Mobil.
Update: See this recent post for more on Big Oil Joe's support for energy companies reaping obscene billions off the backs of Americans.
Update 2: June 15, 2005 - the day Gobush left his job with Lieberman in order to join ExxonMobil - was the very same day the oil company announced they were hiring Philip Cooney, the chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality who had resigned 5 days earlier, and who had come under fire while in office for altering scientific reports in order to downplay global warming.
It was quite fortutitous that on the day ExxonMobil hired a controversial Republican official who had basically done their bidding in the White House, they would have also had a "Democratic" hire ready to go, with whom they could counter charges of corrpution:
Gobush's hiring provided cover for Bush, Cheney, and Big Oil - just like his boss would a few weeks later when he voted for the energy bill.
But it's tough for the senator to pull this off when he was the only New England Democrat to vote for the Cheney energy bill in 2005.
And it's even tougher when, at the very same time the energy bill was being debated in the senate, Lieberman Communications Director Matt Gobush left his job...
to become "Manager of Executive Communications"...
for Exxon Mobil.
Update: See this recent post for more on Big Oil Joe's support for energy companies reaping obscene billions off the backs of Americans.
Update 2: June 15, 2005 - the day Gobush left his job with Lieberman in order to join ExxonMobil - was the very same day the oil company announced they were hiring Philip Cooney, the chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality who had resigned 5 days earlier, and who had come under fire while in office for altering scientific reports in order to downplay global warming.
It was quite fortutitous that on the day ExxonMobil hired a controversial Republican official who had basically done their bidding in the White House, they would have also had a "Democratic" hire ready to go, with whom they could counter charges of corrpution:
ExxonMobil defended its hiring of Cooney by stating that they hire from both sides of the aisle. In a written statement to Democracy Now! The company wrote that "ExxonMobil hired Mr. Cooney at about the same time we hired Matt Gobush, who was the Communications Director for Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman. We have always hired highly qualified people for their talent--not their politics."
Gobush's hiring provided cover for Bush, Cheney, and Big Oil - just like his boss would a few weeks later when he voted for the energy bill.
posted by tparty at 10:41 AM 
