Reasons To Be Cynical Pt. 1: Ford Lobbyist Joins Senate Transportation Committee

by Robert Farago

Published: February 12th, 2009

reasons to be cynical pt 1 ford lobbyist joins senate transportation committee

The Detroit Free Press reveals that Bruce Andrews, Ford’s vice president of government relations, is leaving the Detroit automaker to become the general counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The committee’s remit includes highway safety, international automotive trade agreements and, uh, transportation. The Freep dutifully reports that “Ford had brought Andrews on board to strengthen its ties with Democratic lawmakers.” Mission accomplished, I’d say.

Robert Farago

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4 of 12 comments

Durishin on Feb 13, 2009

Well, it's all on top of the "No ex-lobbyists in this administration" lie. Welcome to the new transparency, comrades.

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Kurt. on Feb 13, 2009

I'm not a Democrate or Republican basher but I've said it before - We would have seen more change from McCain than Obama. Obama is going to give us the same crew and the same governemt we had under the Clinton administration - without the sex jokes. Is that bad or is that good? It's not for me to decide. I just comment.

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Mykeliam on Feb 13, 2009

Is the Senate Transportation Committee the same as the Executive Branch? Is the committee hiring a consultant the same as Obama hiring someone??

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Geeber on Feb 13, 2009
carlos.negros: We have three branches of government. Each branch has its own hiring rules. I don’t consider it cronyism for the Senate or the House to hire someone from the private sector to advise them. I DO see it as cronyism if the Executive branch hires someone from the private sector to RUN a department that makes its own rules which do not need to be passed by a legislative body. A good example of this would be Gale Norton, hired by Bush to head the Agriculture Department after working as a lobbyist for the beef industry. She had the power to single-handedly decide to not test for mad cow disease. Shorter version of the above paragraphs: Congress is controlled by the Democrats, so this is okay. The Bush Administration was Republican, however, so this was bad.

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