Colombia tries to enlist Clinton

Source: MSNBC/Financial Times

Colombia tries to enlist Clinton
By Eoin Callan in Washington and Anastasia Molony in Bogotá

Updated: 6 minutes ago
Colombia will ask Bill Clinton this week to imbue its lobbying efforts with his renowned charm as it seeks to persuade reluctant Democrats to embrace a leader tainted by scandal.

President Alvaro Uribe will host a gala cocktail party with the former US president in Manhattan on Friday, joined by Shakira, the Colombian pop diva.

The event dovetails with Colombia's campaign to persuade Democrats in Congress to approve a free trade deal and a request from President George W. Bush for about $700m in mostly military aid.

Democrats excluded the trade agreement from a shortlist of deals they intend to ratify following public disclosures about ties between members of Mr Uribe's government and rightwing paramilitaries.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19072734/

He funneled billions to Colombia's military and paramilitary death squads during his Presidential tenure.

From your article:

"This is creating new uncertainty in relations with Washington's closest ally in the region at a time when the US is seeking to counter the influence of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's populist leader.

Colombia has responded by hiring Burson-Marsteller, one of Washington's leading lobbying firms, and placing other US lobbyists on retainers of up to $40,000 a month." (Burson-Marsteller is Mark Penn's firm. He is Hillary's main strategist.)

And catch this statement:

"But a former Clinton adviser hired by the Colombian government said that the appearance with the former president was a much needed antidote to a recent snub by Al Gore, Mr Clinton's former vice-president, who cancelled an appearance with the Colombian leader because of "troubling allegations".

One person involved in the lobbying effort said that for Democrats: "Bill Clinton is a political rock star. If he supports it, you've got to take a second look."

Mr Uribe is also meeting Charles Rangel and Sander Levin, the veteran congressmen who are shaping Democratic trade policy and who are both politically close to Mr Clinton. "

More about that trade deal:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1314

unilateral movement concerning the FTA agreements: unbelievable. You'd never know these people have affiliated themselves with the party which was ALWAYS identified with the working people, would you? My God.

Thanks for the info. on Burson-Marsteller. I had no idea of the connection. Dreadful.

Uribe must imagine he has completely screwed labor with this last maneuvering. Not bad for a President of a country with such a grotesque history at the unbearable expense of the desperately needy. I pray to see him repent for his snotty indifference, and brutal actions toward the poor for decades to come. He has sold them ALL out for the rush of power that comes from the gratitude of materialists/exploiters/killers from this country, hot to enrich themselves through the hardship of the Colombian workers.

From your Democracy Now! link:

~snip~
While Clinton is publicly trying to win the support of such unions, behind the scenes she is being advised by a team of strategists closely affiliated with unionbusters, GOP operatives, conservative media and other Democratic Party antagonists.
(snip)

Among other things, the company helps firms fight unionization efforts. Up until March, the labor section of Burson-Marstellar's website read: "Companies cannot be caught unprepared by Organized Labor's coordinated campaigns."
(snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ordinarily, you'd say her quest for power has caused her to do desperate things. It doesn't take long, however, to recall that the Clintons fully supported the right-wing Cuban Batista reactionaries in Miami during their 8 years in the White House.

Your links tell me far more about this person than everything else I have read about her. It's simply not something a Democrat should even dream of doing. Backstabbing, selfish, cold. Someone has absolutely taken the off ramp.

decisions. do you? keep us posted.

How to lose an ally


By Robert Novak (I know, I know :puke: But much can be gleaned from reading the enemy.)

Thursday, May 10, 2007
WASHINGTON
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe returned to Bogota this week in a state of shock. His three-day visit to Capitol Hill to win over Democrats in Congress was described by one American supporter as "catastrophic." Colombian sources said Uribe was stunned by the ferocity of his Democrat opponents, and Vice President Francisco Santos publicly talked about cutting U.S.-Colombian ties.

Uribe got nothing from his meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat leaders. Military aid remains stalled, overall assistance is reduced, and the vital U.S.-Colombian trade bill looks dead. The first Colombian president to crack down on his country's corrupt army officer hierarchy, and to assault both right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas, last week confronted Democrats wedded to out-of-date claims of civil rights abuses and to rigidly protectionist dogma.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/rss/s_506865.html

Years ago one of my daughters showed me some of her translated lyrics.

:rofl:

This does leave me cold. I don't understand how the Clintons could find any kind of good with these dictators...I refuse to believe they are doing it solely out of a need to accrue power and influence. There must be some idealogical reason. What that might be escapes me.