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Democracy Now! reports via AlterNet
Ken Salazar is a former U.S. Senator from Colorado who now works at WilmerHale, one of the most influential lobbying firms in Washington. Some groups have criticized Salazar's selection due to his vocal support of fracking, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Keystone XL pipeline.
In addition to Ken Salazar, other leaders of the transition team include former Obama National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and Maggie Williams, the director of Harvard's Institute of Politics.
[...] WilmerHale [represents] corporate clients across the board--Cigna, for instance. Cigna is a healthcare giant that is fighting for a merger with Anthem. WilmerHale represents them, Delta Airlines, Verizon, investment firms, a mining company. So, WilmerHale is a major law and lobbying firm.
Ken Salazar is not a registered lobbyist at WilmerHale; he is a partner there. Interestingly enough, Hillary Clinton had published a year ago an op-ed deriding the revolving door where lawmakers leave office and become lobbyists or help special interests. And she had specifically said that she was concerned about lawmakers who go into that line of work, public policy work, for corporate clients, but do not register as a lobbyist, which seems to fit the description of Ken Salazar.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dry on Friday August 19 2016, @02:27AM
From outside, American politics continues to get weirder with Hillary to the right of Trump economically though on the nationalist and authoritarian scale, Trump is to the right of Hillary.
I still don't understand how Americans consider the Democrats as left wing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @02:43AM
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday August 19 2016, @03:42AM
They're not. They're center-right.
Whereas the Republicans are the far right (Think UKIP, FN and FPO).
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: -1, Troll) by jmorris on Friday August 19 2016, @06:04AM
Nope. The GOP is center right, the Dems were center left but Obama pushed them more left. But the GOP is dead and is going to morph into a rump of #NeverTrump elites moving to the Dem Party (probably after a cycle or two in the wilderness) and a Real Right wing / Nationalistic party.
But as to this story, I'm rolling on the goddamn floor laughing. Apparently some of you proggies didn't see Hillary reversing her position on TPP? Really? I though everybody saw that one, that it was one of those obvious "I won't c*m in your mouth" promises that aren't expected to be kept. That it was kinda like Obama's opposition to gay marriage, even the gays didn't hold it against him because everybody knew he was just saying what he needed to say for the low info voters.. I mean Hillary was right in the middle of the groundwork for TPP, she worked closely with Obama and all of the interest groups, she cashed their checks to the Clinton Foundation, etc. Obviously she was lying when she briefly agreed with Bernie that it was a bad idea.
But she is going to be pushing for TPP, because unlike the Bernie idiots she knows exactly what TPP is and it is another lifelong dream of the Progressives she can get done. She had to watch Obama succeed on Obamacare where she failed but this is her turn to move the ball. (assuming she can get elected and assuming she doesn't die from the stress of campaigning of course...) Hint: TPP ain't really a trade deal. It is more like an EU like structure to bind the US and a bunch of other countries into a bloc.
As for fracking she will be playing both sides to see who can offer more. She doesn't personally give a damn either way.