Wish Beck would spend a week or two on Rahm-E.
================================================================Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:09:39 AM · 35 of 42
maggief to Liz; hoosiermama
Rahm Emanuel: From Clinton aide to money maker - He made friends and then a fortune
Chicago Tribune - Sunday, November 9, 2003
Author: Mike Dorning, Washington Bureau.
EXCERPT
Throughout his career, Emanuel has anchored his success in the spheres of public life where political and economic power are joined together most closely. He rocketed into national politics because of his proficiency as a fundraiser, helping Richard Daley secure resources to win his first mayoral term in 1989 and later spearheading fundraising for Clinton’s 1992 campaign.
In the White House, he was Clinton’s political director and later a senior adviser to the president. One of his signature successes was his work with William Daley in securing passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, marking a turning point in the Democratic Party toward the free-trade interests of corporate America and away from the protectionist demands of labor unions.
During the short break from politics he took after leaving the Clinton administration, Emanuel chose in investment banking a field that allowed him to take full advantage of the contacts he developed with corporate titans during his political career. Timing also was helpful. The then-soaring stock market spawned a rush of mergers and acquisitions during the late 1990s and into 2000, making investment banking extremely profitable for major players.
All of that already was clear when Emanuel left the White House in October 1998 and three months later took a job as a Chicago-based managing director for Wasserstein .
” Bruce was always anxious to bring high-profile, well-known people into the franchise,” said Rolfe Kopelan, managing partner of Capstone Partnership, a firm that specializes in Wall Street recruiting. “That varnishes your own image. Bruce was very involved in Democratic politics. So Rahm Emanuel would have been attractive to him.”
In a statement issued through a spokesman, Wasserstein , now the chief executive officer for the investment bank Lazard LLC, said: “ Rahm did a great job for our firm. Energetic and extremely popular in the Midwest, he had a keen understanding of the interplay of regulatory aspects and corporate activity in financial advisory work, particularly in the utility and bank industries.”
According to congressional disclosure statements, Emanuel received $16.2 million from Wasserstein , based on fees that the bank earned from eight clients. In each case, he worked to land the business either through a key executive he had come to know during his political career or was provided an introduction by a contact he developed through his political work.
Three of those clients were corporations controlled by major Democratic donors who developed relationships with Emanuel through their involvement in national party politics: Loral Space and Communications Ltd., headed by Schwartz, who celebrated his 71st birthday at the White House; Slim-Fast, headed by Abraham; and GenTek Inc., a telecommunications manufacturer headed by Paul Montrone.
Schwartz said Emanuel contacted him shortly after leaving the White House, and the defense industry CEO responded with an invitation to meet at his New York office. He said he hired Emanuel to explore potential deals with other companies, which he declined to describe.
“He knew a lot of high-level people in U.S. corporations, and they respected him,” Schwartz said. “So he can get to the high level of corporations to present ideas. And that’s half the battle: to get to the right people, so you don’t waste a lot of time.”
Another Emanuel client, medical equipment manufacturer Lumenis, is controlled by Arie Genger, a financial backer and confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who has served as a back channel between Sharon and the Bush administration.
Emanuel said he forged a relationship with Genger through work on health-care policy, first encountering the Israeli-American businessman at a talk Emanuel gave on the topic while on the White House staff.
Genger did not return repeated calls, but Emanuel and the company’s former CEO both said he led a Wasserstein team representing Lumenis in the acquisition of Coherent Medical, a California-based laser manufacturer.
Two more clients were institutions with deep ties in the Daley administration: the Chicago Board Options Exchange and Avolar, a since-disbanded business jet subsidiary of United Airlines. Emanuel was hired at CBOE by Chairman William Brodsky, an active player in Chicago politics. At Avolar, it was CEO Stuart Oran, a former chief lobbyist for United who had come to know Emanuel through his lobbying work and through local political and cultural activities.
Brodsky said he hired Emanuel to represent the exchange in negotiations with the Chicago Board of Trade over a governance issue. Brodsky said he based the decision largely on impressions of Emanuel that he formed through contacts they had while Emanuel was a Daley fundraiser and White House aide.
“It was really because I had such confidence in Rahm from my previous dealings with him,” Brodsky said. “There were political dimensions to this. It wasn’t just crunching the numbers. In membership organizations, you have to deal with personalities.”
Oran declined a request for an on-the-record interview.
By Emanuel’s account, he benefited most from two big deals. One was representing Unicom, the former corporate parent of Commonwealth Edison, in an $8.2 billion merger with Pennsylvania-based Peco Energy Co. The other was representing GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago-based venture capital fund managed by Rauner, in its purchase of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.
Rauner said he first met Emanuel for lunch at the suggestion of Erskine Bowles, the former chief of staff for Clinton. For Unicom chairman and CEO John Rowe, it was breakfast at the suggestion of Lester Crown, a billionaire who is a major shareholder in defense contractor General Dynamics. Crown said he developed a strong relationship with Emanuel through their mutual involvement in Chicago’s tight-knit civic establishment.
“When Rahm was going to come into town [after leaving the White House], I called John and said, `You should get to know him. This is someone you could use in business,’” Crown said.
“There were a lot of good investment banking firms that could handle this on a technical level,” Rowe said. But in a merger that combined regulatory, political and economic issues, he said, “ Rahm seemed to give that extra bit to think about the pieces and how they fit strategically.”
Emanuel’s involvement also proved valuable because of the timing of the merger, announced shortly after Daley and other local officials savaged ComEd for its laggardly response to summer blackouts in 1999. Emanuel’s relationship with the mayor and his skill in massaging political issues proved crucial in overcoming the blackout backlash, said bankers and executives involved in the deal.
While the Unicom-Peco merger came together relatively quickly, GTCR’s purchase of SecurityLink was a troubled transaction that stretched on for a year and nearly collapsed when the venture capital company could not get a bank to finance the deal at the agreed price. Emanuel had brought the idea to GTCR, and his strong relationship with executives at SBC helped keep it alive, Rauner said.
Worked relentlessly
” Rahm was relentless. He, in his heart of hearts, knew this should work,” said David Donnini, the GTCR principal who worked most closely on the deal. “I remember getting a call from him almost every day, throwing out ideas to make it work, some crazy, some not.”
Under a regulatory deadline to divest itself of SecurityLink, SBC financed all but $100 million of GTCR’s $479 million purchase of the firm. Less than six months later, GTCR resold the company for $1 billion, earning a quick $500 million on its investment.
GOt it!
from:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2363103/posts
Acorn’s Ally at the NLRB Obama appoints an SEIU man with ties to Blago
The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 15, 2009
Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2009 10:55:30 AM by khnyny
One of Big Labor’s priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of supervising union elections, investigating labor practices, and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do this by regulatory fiat, without a vote of Congress.
Yet now that he could soon have the power to act on this conviction, Mr. Becker won’t tell Congress if this is what he still believes. In written responses to questions from Republican Orrin Hatch, Mr. Becker promised only to “maintain an open mind about whether [his] suggestions should be implemented in any manner.” That sounds like his mind is made up but he won’t admit it lest it hurt his confirmation.
Mr. Becker also won’t give a clear answer about his role in preparing several pro-labor executive orders issued by President Obama shortly after inauguration. Mr. Becker’s name was found in at least one of the documents, suggesting that he had written it.
When asked by Sen. Hatch if he was “involved or responsible in any way” for these executive orders, Mr. Becker responded: