It doesn�t get much
more devious than this. Last month, on the 30 of October, Democratic Senator
Max Baucus of Montana held a little �NASCAR Fundraiser� in Atlanta, Georgia.
The cause and locale were far from Big Sky Country. Attendees of the benefit
forked over $2,500 a piece to eat breakfast at the lavish Ritz-Carlton Hotel
and spend an afternoon at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The brains behind
the peddle-to-the-metal fundraiser belonged to Leo Giacometto, a Republican
operative who served as Montana Republican Senator Conrad Burns� chief of staff
during the latter part of the 1990s. Giacometto was one of the key architects
of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and has since
enjoyed the turnstile environment of Washington politics and now heads up Gage
LLC, a corporate lobbying firm based in DC.
Giacometto has long
been a key player in national telecom policy and some of his firm�s top clients
include AT&T, Nextel, MCI, and Bresnan Communications. Giacometto�s old
boss Conrad Burns chairs the Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and Max Baucus is a ranking member of the finance committee,
which also plays a huge role in developing national telecom policy.
Leo Giacometto is
paying to play.
According to
Barrett Kaiser, a spokesperson for Senator Max Baucus, Giacometto is working
for free for the senator�s reelection campaign, which is coming up in 2008.
"Max has enjoyed widespread support from both Democrats and Republicans
over his many years serving Montanans," Kaiser told the Billings Gazette, "He's proud of
that support."
"I believe
that he's good for what I believe in," prattled Giacometto.
Indeed, Baucus is
good for Giacometto�s interests. The senator is an ardent supporter of market
deregulation and voted in favor of the atrocious 1996 Telecommunications Act,
which has undermined competition and allowed huge telecommunications companies
to gobble up the industry. Of course, monstrous corporations like those that
Giacometto represents and Baucus regulates prefer mergers and acquisitions to
competition, and their lobbying for the 1996 act have paid off in full.
Despite
the lustrous guarantees, the Telecommunications Act has done anything but increase market competition. In
fact, the complete opposite has occurred. Smaller companies have not been able
to even dent the monopoly strongholds of the dominant companies, gaining only
one percent of the market share overall since the passage of the act, reports
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer
Report.
For
example, �The major cable companies, who have never competed with each other,
continue to refuse to invade each others' service areas. Instead, they have
merged and swapped wires, creating huge dominant national players holding
tightly controlled clusters with joint ventures permeating the industry,� says
Consumers Union.
To put
it simply: consumers have not fared well, the industry giants have.
Of course,
Giacometto and Baucus knew all too well this would occur. That�s why the
companies that benefited have since padded Giacometto�s salary and Baucus�
campaign coffers.
After President
Bill Clinton signed the act into law in February of 1996, AT&T went ahead
and bought TCI Corporation, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX merged, Southwestern Bell
and PacTel merged to become SBC and then purchased Ameritech, MCI
Communications and WorldCom joined to become MCI WorldCom, and Bell Atlantic
and GTE merged to become Verizon.
This is
monopolization, not capitalism. Not surprisingly, Verizon has donated tens of
thousands of dollars to Max Baucus.
Soon, we are likely
to see Giacometto raise bundles for his former employer, Senator Burns�
reelection campaign, which comes up next year. Business in Washington isn�t
about party loyalty or ideology or constituents; it�s about greed, corruption
and campaign donations. That�s why Giacometto has no qualms with working for
both the Republicans and Democrats. It�s pays off and pays well.
No doubt Montana
wouldn�t benefit much, if at all, by reelecting Senator Max Baucus. Of course,
that�s what Leo Giacometto and the industries he represents are counting on.
Joshua Frank is the author of the new book,
"Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush," which has just been published by Common Courage
Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be
reached at Joshua@brickburner.org.