Free Republic

Carly Fiorina is gearing up to run for president. National Journal reports she already has begun hiring staff. Fiorina has run for office only once, as the Republican challenger to Sen. Barbara Boxer of California in 2010 -- and she lost. Still, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO won prime attention by running and losing. She's on "Meet the Press" all the time. She's still rich and still good-looking. (In 2010, Fiorina and husband Frank claimed a combined net worth of $30 million to $120 million.) Insiders think she's probably running for vice president; if Hillary Clinton is the Dems' nominee, the...

Litigation: After thwarting a $9.5 billion judgment from an Ecuadorean court, Chevron is going after the entire edifice of environmentalist enablers who make such junk lawsuits possible. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. To the surprise of many, the oil giant is suing the tony, white-shoe law firm of Patton Boggs for alleged unethical involvement in an all-out legal attack by environmentalists over rainforest pollution in Ecuador. Chevron accuses the oh-so-respected firm of lying, concealing inconvenient facts, running a public smear campaign and miscellaneous other flim-flammery, all for the sake of the dollar signs spinning in their eyes. This poses...

A federal judge has dismissed a libel case against a homosexual who claimed Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign paid to rig a polygraph test regarding his sensational charge that he had sex and used drugs with the future president. Larry Sinclair – who claims he twice engaged in sexual activity and used cocaine with Obama in 1999 when Obama was an Illinois state senator – was accused by Internet publisher Daniel Parisi of making false and damaging statements that led to the demise of Parisi’s porn website, Whitehouse.com, in 2008. The alleged defamation did not center on Sinclair’s charges of sex...

Washington’s biggest lobbying firm has acquired the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a smaller firm started by two former senators in 2008. Patton Boggs, which reported $78.1 million in lobbying revenue in 2009, counts among its clients Halliburton, Bristol Myers Squib and the Mars candy company. Breaux-Lott, started by former Louisiana Senator John Breaux and former Senate Majority Trent Lott and their sons, represented Chevron, Diageo and Goldman Sachs. “I think they’re at a point where they need to continue to grow,” Managing Partner Stuart Pape told POLITICO. “They need the substantial additional resources that we can provide, and that’s why the...

Wrong About Rove? By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 23, 2006; 7:54 AM I reported yesterday (and if you missed it, start paying attention!) that the liberal Web site Truthout.org was standing by its claim that Karl Rove had been secretly indicted in the CIA leak case, despite strong denials by the White House aide's lawyer and spokesman. Why the Rove team would lie about information that, if true, was certain to come out soon was never quite clear. More than three dozen mainstream journalists checked on the Truthout report but could not confirm a word of...

The Chinese government had hired Patton Boggs LLP, the biggest Washington lobby firm, to give it advice about Congress, according to a federal disclosure. The Chinese embassy in Washington will pay Patton Boggs $22,000 a month, according to contract papers filed with the U.S. Justice Department. China hired Patton Boggs in July, before congressional pressure helped scuttle an $18.5 billion bid by Beijing-based CNOOC Ltd., an oil producer, to buy Unocal Corp. of El Segundo, Calif. Mark Cowan, Robert Horn and Timothy Chorba, a former U.S. ambassador to Singapore, will lead Patton Boggs' work with the embassy. Cowan is a...

The Financial Times reports China has hired the marquee lobbying firm of Patton Boggs, for a $22,000 monthly retainer, to help improve its image in the United States. In the past, Patton Boggs has represented the nuclear proliferators of Pakistan and the jihad enablers of Saudi Arabia -- excellent experience for working with Beijing. "The Chinese are learning to walk the walk and talk the talk, and I don't have a problem with it," says Robert Kapp, former president of the U.S.-China Business Council. (Is there anything China could conceivably do that its cheering section in the business community would...

Breaux, 'hottest hire' in D.C., keeps pace By GERARD SHIELDS gshields@theadvocate.com Advocate Washington bureau WASHINGTON -- In joining the powerful Washington lobbying firm of Patton Boggs, newly retired U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., will become the 106th former Congress member active in the lucrative lobbying field. "John Breaux is just the latest of the revolving door and that revolving door is out of control," said Craig Holman, campaign finance lobbyist for the nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group, Public Citizen. Breaux follows his former LSU Law School roommate U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, who recently took the job of directing lobbying efforts...