Posted on 08/26/2008 4:36:02 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
Firm Lobbies Senator Biden Although Son Does Not
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Although firm members say Biden, 38, does not lobby his father, this kind of family tie, said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, "raises the potential of a conflict of interest." For its part, the Obama campaign said that Sen. Biden had always followed ethics rules. "Hunter Biden has never lobbied Sen. Biden's office or committees, period," David Wade, Obama-Biden spokesperson, wrote in an email response.
"He's never worked on a client issue where other members of the firm have lobbied the office. Hunter shares expenses not revenues with his partners, so there's no benefit to him when a partner lobbies. Sen. Biden has been as strong a supporter of ethics reform as the Senate has known, and his office follows all ethics laws right down to the letter."
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One example was the University of Delaware, which Oldaker approached in 2002, shortly after founding the firm with Hunter Biden and Robert Belair. Since then, the university has paid Oldaker's firm $1.5 million.
The payoff: as of 2006, $24.8 million in earmarks for defense research, a student-exchange program, and a drug-and-alcohol-studies program.
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Oldaker did not return a phone call to his home.
Belair, the firm's other named partner, said he has never personally lobbied Sen. Biden, but has on occasion spoken with Biden's staff for a client with issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose membership includes Biden.
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Belair said the firm has no formal policy banning Hunter from lobbying his father but said, "I think in all the years since we've put the firm together I'm unaware of Hunter ever, ever lobbying his dad or that office. I don't think that happened. I never asked him to.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
CHANGE we can believe in!!!!
my pet peeve:
i’m really tired of families in politics.
go get your own job!
my u.s. congress woman’s husband skied into a tree,
so she inherited his washington d.c. job.
Hey, it’s a money maker. Might as well go for it.
What an amazing coincidence. So did mine. Then mine married again, got divorced and married a US Congressman. LOL
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