MannyIsGod
08-17-2004, 02:38 PM
last night at my job there was a dinner thrown for tom delay, house majoirty leader and congressman from houston. it was thrown by a man named tom loeffler, who used to be a congressman from san antonio. read a brief history of tom loeffler below, then tell me if you feel comfortable when this man is putting on benifits with wealthy people with members of congress. whose interests do you think will be held in higher regard, yours or the billionairs/
Revolving-door lobbyist Tom Loeffler served in Congress from 1979 until 1987. He also was: A legislative counsel to Senator John Tower; A congressional lobbyist for President Ford; and Helped coordinate President Reagan’s Central American policies (see William Kilberg). Loeffler left Arter & Hadden (which the Center for Public Integrity ranked as George W. Bush’s No. 10 career patron in 1999) to form his own lobby shop in 2001. Loeffler surfaced in two Bush gubernatorial scandals. After then-Governor Bush reappointed Loeffler to the University or Texas System Board of Regents in 1995, Loeffler joined the board of the newly created University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO), which oversees billions of dollars of endowment funds. The Houston Chronicle exposed that UTIMCO’s board doled out lucrative investment contracts to firms with close ties to both Bush (see Lee Bass, Robert Grady and Charles Wyly) and Pioneer UTIMCO Chair Tom Hicks (Hicks’ firm kept Loeffler on a lobby retainer in 1997 and 1998) . Other Bush-appointed Pioneer regents who sat on UTIMCO’s board include Woody Hunt, A.W. Riter and Tony Sanchez. As a regent in 1994, Loeffler voted to exclusively license a promising UT-developed gene cancer therapy to start up Introgen Therapeutics. Three years later, Introgen appointed Loeffler to its board and granted him options on 10,000 shares of stock. After ethical complaints about this vested interest as Introgen went public in 2000, Loeffler pledged to give these proceeds to charity (Pioneer Regent Charles Miller also owned at least 10,000 Introgen shares). Loeffler was a big lobbyist for Metabolife International (see Ron Kaufman), which Michael Ellis founded after being busted for housing a speed lab in his home. A still-legal herbal stimulant used in weight-loss remedies, ephedra is linked to psychosis, strokes and heart attacks. After eight ephedra-linked deaths in the state, Texas Department of Health (TDH) staff drafted tough new ephedra marketing rules in the late 1990s, triggering an industry lobbying blitz and an influx of contributions to then-Governor Bush by this lobby and ephedra vendors such as Ellis and Pioneer Craig Keeland. Bush’s Board of Health appointees (see Bill Ceverha) trashed this staff proposal in 1999 and adopted a weak industry alternative. Next a Texas state senator hired by Loeffler and Metabolife, lobbied Bush Health Secretary Tommy Thompson in 2001 to oppose a pending TDH rule requiring ephedra products to carry a toll-free FDA number where users could report health problems. One month later, TDH postponed implementing the new rule, citing the “advice” of the U.S. Department of Health. After federal prosecutors announced a criminal probe in 2002 into an alleged Metabolife cover up of consumer health complaints, the company suddenly released 13,000 such complaints. The FDA belatedly announced in late 2003 that it would seek an ephedra ban. During the seven years that the FDA deliberated this policy, ephedra contributed to the deaths of more than 80 people, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the industry made billions of dollars. The San Antonio City Council questioned if it got its money’s worth from a $172,800 contract with Loeffler’s firm to secure federal aid for the city in 2003. After scoring poorly on eight “performance measures,” Loeffler’s firm was a no show at a late 2003 city meeting to review its performance. Loeffler seemed predestined for special-interest lobbying. A 1984 Public Citizen study found that he had the worst record in Congress when he voted with consumers in just one out of 40 key votes. Loeffler also topped a list of five members of Congress whose campaigns received illegal corporate money from Vernon Savings & Loan (which failed at a taxpayer cost of $1.3 billion). A Vernon officer told a 1989 grand jury that Loeffler offered to set up a meeting with then-Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III if Vernon helped pay Loeffler’s debt from a failed 1986 gubernatorial bid. The officer testified that four Vernon executives then moved $8,000 in laundered corporate money to Loeffler’s campaign--just before federal regulators forced them to resign. In a San Francisco hotel shower in 1986 Loeffler reportedly improvised a new prophylactic—wearing shower caps on his feet to prevent AIDS.
Revolving-door lobbyist Tom Loeffler served in Congress from 1979 until 1987. He also was: A legislative counsel to Senator John Tower; A congressional lobbyist for President Ford; and Helped coordinate President Reagan’s Central American policies (see William Kilberg). Loeffler left Arter & Hadden (which the Center for Public Integrity ranked as George W. Bush’s No. 10 career patron in 1999) to form his own lobby shop in 2001. Loeffler surfaced in two Bush gubernatorial scandals. After then-Governor Bush reappointed Loeffler to the University or Texas System Board of Regents in 1995, Loeffler joined the board of the newly created University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO), which oversees billions of dollars of endowment funds. The Houston Chronicle exposed that UTIMCO’s board doled out lucrative investment contracts to firms with close ties to both Bush (see Lee Bass, Robert Grady and Charles Wyly) and Pioneer UTIMCO Chair Tom Hicks (Hicks’ firm kept Loeffler on a lobby retainer in 1997 and 1998) . Other Bush-appointed Pioneer regents who sat on UTIMCO’s board include Woody Hunt, A.W. Riter and Tony Sanchez. As a regent in 1994, Loeffler voted to exclusively license a promising UT-developed gene cancer therapy to start up Introgen Therapeutics. Three years later, Introgen appointed Loeffler to its board and granted him options on 10,000 shares of stock. After ethical complaints about this vested interest as Introgen went public in 2000, Loeffler pledged to give these proceeds to charity (Pioneer Regent Charles Miller also owned at least 10,000 Introgen shares). Loeffler was a big lobbyist for Metabolife International (see Ron Kaufman), which Michael Ellis founded after being busted for housing a speed lab in his home. A still-legal herbal stimulant used in weight-loss remedies, ephedra is linked to psychosis, strokes and heart attacks. After eight ephedra-linked deaths in the state, Texas Department of Health (TDH) staff drafted tough new ephedra marketing rules in the late 1990s, triggering an industry lobbying blitz and an influx of contributions to then-Governor Bush by this lobby and ephedra vendors such as Ellis and Pioneer Craig Keeland. Bush’s Board of Health appointees (see Bill Ceverha) trashed this staff proposal in 1999 and adopted a weak industry alternative. Next a Texas state senator hired by Loeffler and Metabolife, lobbied Bush Health Secretary Tommy Thompson in 2001 to oppose a pending TDH rule requiring ephedra products to carry a toll-free FDA number where users could report health problems. One month later, TDH postponed implementing the new rule, citing the “advice” of the U.S. Department of Health. After federal prosecutors announced a criminal probe in 2002 into an alleged Metabolife cover up of consumer health complaints, the company suddenly released 13,000 such complaints. The FDA belatedly announced in late 2003 that it would seek an ephedra ban. During the seven years that the FDA deliberated this policy, ephedra contributed to the deaths of more than 80 people, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the industry made billions of dollars. The San Antonio City Council questioned if it got its money’s worth from a $172,800 contract with Loeffler’s firm to secure federal aid for the city in 2003. After scoring poorly on eight “performance measures,” Loeffler’s firm was a no show at a late 2003 city meeting to review its performance. Loeffler seemed predestined for special-interest lobbying. A 1984 Public Citizen study found that he had the worst record in Congress when he voted with consumers in just one out of 40 key votes. Loeffler also topped a list of five members of Congress whose campaigns received illegal corporate money from Vernon Savings & Loan (which failed at a taxpayer cost of $1.3 billion). A Vernon officer told a 1989 grand jury that Loeffler offered to set up a meeting with then-Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III if Vernon helped pay Loeffler’s debt from a failed 1986 gubernatorial bid. The officer testified that four Vernon executives then moved $8,000 in laundered corporate money to Loeffler’s campaign--just before federal regulators forced them to resign. In a San Francisco hotel shower in 1986 Loeffler reportedly improvised a new prophylactic—wearing shower caps on his feet to prevent AIDS.