The political graveyard?
So where do former members of the House and Senate, not to mention Governors and former Cabinet members go when they exit from the political stage? Many of them wind up filling seats on boards of directors. Just take a look at the proxy filed by IDT Corp. (IDT) yesterday. There’s a former Governor: James Gilmore. A former Senator: Slade Gorton. There’s Jack Kemp, a former leader in the House of Representatives. And the former Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick.
Of course, IDT isn’t the only company tapping into the well of ex-politicos. On Wednesday, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (KERX) announced that former Senator Wyche Fowler Jr. would be joining the company’s board. And earlier this year, Lucent Technologies (LU) asked former Defense Secretary William Perry and former CIA Director James Woolsey to serve on the board of its Bell Labs subsidiary. And in July, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle resigned from the board of Apollo Investment Corp. (AINV), citing unspecified "other commitments".
No doubt that the former politicos help with various contacts both in and out of the halls of power. But they can also provide a bit of buzz. I can’t even count how many times Al Gore pimped Apple (AAPL) products during An Inconvenient Truth.
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So where will people like Conrad Burns and Donald Rumsfeld wind up? Post your comments below.
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 9 Comments » |
November 10th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
DR goes to Carlyle? Seems to be a likely placement.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Rumsfeld seems a natch for defense contractor (s). Not seeing too much in educational field tho. Kind of a shame there because would be interesting to see academics try to hash out what has happened since 9/11.
They’ve sat on their hands in effect as the pros
ran the shop, unlike Kennedy era. Course that could be a reflection of the change from broad based Vietnam thinking to the highly specialized technocrats of the Mid East.
Seems both approaches have led to stalemates.
But I suppose a united Vietnam with Intel and Citibank in charge is better than a simmering
left over Korea or Cuba.
Now we’ll get to see how the Dems are treated by the Irans of the world.
November 12th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
They also end up on hedge funds and private equity groups, as well as going in and out of regulating an industry and heading a company in that industry, or going into consulting work.
John Snow went from DOT to working for Chessie, part of CSX dealing with foreign ports was sold to Dubai when he got the TreasSec job, now his job is on a hedgie with Quayle that is on tap for war profiteering contracts.
I posted on this, too,
http://www.billakanodoodahs.com/2006/11/who-you-know/
November 13th, 2006 at 2:39 am
The basic problem is that many Board members are appointed for “window dressing” purposes.
Board members often have no experience in the business of the companies whose Board they serve on.
Worst yet, many unqualified Board members who lack the proper amount of specialized education, knowledge, skills, training, and experience are appointed to the Audit Committee.
These Audit Committee members own stock and receive stock options in the same company too. Such stock ownership and stock options have an adverse effect on the Audit Committee member’s objectivity and professional skepticism.
I posted more detailed information about Board “window dressing†on my site.
http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2006/11/audit-committees-and-external-auditors.html
November 13th, 2006 at 7:54 am
So where will people like Conrad Burns and Donald Rumsfeld wind up?
Haliburton…..
November 13th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Remember that Rummy is big in biotech and owns a boatload of GILD. Small wonder the “bird flu” is such a concern to the Shrub administration.
November 14th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
for more interesting items Google “IDT Haiti”
November 15th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
On IDT – - you haven’t read your footnotes properly. All of these politicos are NOT standing for re-election (i.e., resigning from the board)
November 16th, 2006 at 9:22 am
This had nothing to do with them standing for re-election. It was merely a post about where some of these folks wind up after their political careers are over.