The roosters are the smart ones!
Peter S. Knight, Gore’s former chief of staff, managed Gore’s first bid for the presidency in 1988. In 1989, he began lobbying for the firm Wunder, Diefendorfer, Cannon and Thelan. Given his closeness to Gore and the rest of the Clinton administration, corporations now pay Knight upward of $10,000 a month to wield his influence with Gore. With the help of his new clients, Knight soon cemented a new role for himself as Gore’s “chief of fund raising.”
Since 1996, Knight’s various lobbying and fund-raising activity has been the subject of a Federal Election Commission investigation, a Justice Department inquiry and two House Commerce Committee probes.
Gore chose Knight to act as chairman of the foundation during Gore’s first vice presidential term. Three of Knight’s clients - millionaire publishing magnate Vance Opperman, Bell Atlantic and Fluor Corporation -- showered the foundation with $10,000 each.
Knight also solicited $10,000 contributions from foundations run by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Coca-Cola Company, MCI Communications (now MCI WorldCom, Inc.), Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corporation (Chairman Bill Gates also contributed a $30,000 glass sculpture). Under Gore’s supervision, the foundation pledged to take corporate money only through their foundations, not from corporations directly. The $10,000 paid by the Coca-Cola Company, however, came out of the corporate account.