Lobbying has a bad odor in Washington these days, what with the Jack Abramoff mess and the Duke Cunningham prosecution, but that apparently hasn’t given former Attorney General John Ashcroft any qualms about getting into the business.
The Chicago Tribune reported last week that Ashcroft registered as a lobbyist a few months ago and already has banked at least $269,000 in fees. From his client list, it seems like Ashcroft is developing a practice of advocating for companies that want government homeland-security business.
Interesting. As President Bush’s first-term attorney general, Ashcroft was heavily involved in homeland security issues after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Justice Department has become a key clearinghouse for homeland security contacts, according to the Tribune.
Ashcroft’s biggest client so far, with a $220,000 contract, is new-economy heavyweight Oracle Corp., which is expert in large databases. Similar clients are ChoicePoint, which sells credit reports and other data to the government, and LTU Technologies Inc., which makes software to analyze video and other image data. A ChoicePoint spokesman told the Tribune that the company hired Ashcroft’s firm to solicit business with the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security.
The revolving door between government and business is hardly an Ashcroft creation, but there’s something disquieting about a former attorney general of the United States trying to sell software to his successor.
Along with the secretaries of state, defense and treasury, the attorney general traditionally has been considered one of the most prestigious cabinet officials, and it’s been rare to see an AG out influence peddling after leaving office.
Indeed, the Tribune reported, no attorney general for at least 30 years has so openly gone into lobbying. Most former AGs have chosen more discreet post-government careers in the law or the corporate world. Richard Thornburgh, the last Republican attorney general before Ashcroft, served at the U.N., was an examiner in the WorldCom bankruptcy and worked on the independent panel that looked into CBS’s “Memogate” flap.
Ashcroft hasn’t totally abandoned the law – he’s also a professor at Regent University, whose president is televangelist Pat Robertson.
