Well, well. Jeb Bush is also connected to Alcalde & Fay (Vicki Iseman's firm).
Harry Hope
So, to recap the connections:
John McCain--->Vicki Iseman, lobbyist---Alcalde & Fay lobbying
firm-->Iseman's client Carnival Corporation-->Micky Arison, CEO of
Carnival-->recipient of $236 Million FEMA Katrina contracts-->Jeb
Bush, facilitator of FEMA contracts and recipient of Hector Alcalde's
largess.
So, Jeb Bush used his influence as Florida Governor to secure FEMA
contracts for Carnival Corporation, a client of Alcalde and Fay. And
magically, Hector Alcalde is a large benefactor for Jeb Bush.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/ap/politics/mainD8G2D62O5.shtml
Jeb's story here is parallel to the hot water in which McCain finds
himself.
But Jeb (*the smart one*) performs the lobbying, the influence
peddling AND gets the payoff.
Isn't it nice how it all works out for the Bush family?
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/seafan/1848
Feb 21st 2008
Well, well. Jeb Bush is also connected to Alcalde & Fay (Vicki
Iseman's firm)
by seafan
While working on another angle to the John McCain/Vicki Iseman
lobbyist story in today's NYT,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html?ei=5070&en=30235243afff55bf&ex=1204174800&emc=eta1&pagewanted=printI
stumbled upon some additional and very interesting connections deeper
into this whole story.
Put very simply:
John McCain may also be involved (1) in Vicki Iseman's lobbying
efforts for the Carnival Corporation, (2) a Miami cruise company.
Carnival Cruise company (CEO Micky Arison)(3) was under scrutiny for a
decision by FEMA in 2005 to charter three cruise ships to be used as
temporary housing for Katrina victims.
The contracts awarded to Carnival were exorbitant and were under
investigation by Henry Waxman on the Gov't Reform Committee.
Jeb Bush pulled the strings to obtain these FEMA contracts for
Carnival. (4)
Oh, and one more detail about Hector Alcalde, the owner of Ms.
Iseman's lobbying firm, Alcalde & Fay,... Mr. Alcalde has contributed
heavily to Jeb Bush and other Florida Republicans. (5)
(1)
The lobbyist, a partner at the firm Alcalde & Fay, represented
telecommunications companies for whom Mr. McCain’s commerce committee
was pivotal.
Her clients contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
Mr. Black said Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman were friends and nothing
more.
But in 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at
campaign events that staff members took notice.
One recalled asking, “Why is she always around?”
That February, Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman attended a small fund-raising
dinner with several clients at the Miami-area home of a cruise-line
executive and then flew back to Washington along with a campaign aide
on the corporate jet of one of her clients, Paxson Communications.
By then, according to two former McCain associates, some of the
senator’s advisers had grown so concerned that the relationship had
become romantic that they took steps to intervene.
(Although this cruise-line executive is not named in this article, I
would bet that it is Micky Arison, CEO of Carnival Corporation.)
Here is Miss Vicki's client list:
(2)
Iseman, Vicki
Lobbyist Profile, 2007
Lobbying Firm Alcalde & Fay
Client
Arison Family Trust (Micky Arison, CEO of Carnival Corporation)
BearingPoint Inc
CACI International
City of Miami, FL
Computer Sciences Corp
Homer-Center School District
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Ion Media Networks
Jovan Broadcasting
Operation Warm
Saga Communications
Total Living Network
(Credit: Center for Responsive Politics)
Iseman, Vicki
Career Client List, 1998 - 2006
Client
American Maglev Technology
AMFM Inc
Arison Family Trust
AstraZeneca
BearingPoint Inc
CACI International
CanWest
Capstar Broadcasting Partners
Carnival Corp
City of Miami, FL
City of Palm Springs, CA
Click Radio
Computer Sciences Corp
Future Leaders of America
HFF Inc
Hillsborough County
Hispanic Broadcasting Inc
Homer-Center School District
i2Telecom International
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Ion Media Networks
Jovan Broadcasting
Latona Assoc
Marin County, CA
National Stroke Assn
Operation Warm
Paxson Communications
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Saga Communications
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Telemundo Network Group
Total Living Network
Tulare County
Univision Communications
Walter Industries
(Credit: Center for Responsive Politics)
(3)
Loophole Lets Lobbyists Hide Clients' Identity, July 5, 2002
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02EFDB1031F936A35754C0A9649C8B63
.....In the 1990's, Congressional Democrats used Ted Arison, the
founder of Carnival Cruise lines who saved millions in taxes by
renouncing his United States citizenship and returning to Israel, as a
case study of why the tax law should be rewritten.
Mr. Arison was one of the richest men in the world when he died in
1999.
A spokesman for the Carnival Corporation, whose chairman is Micky
Arison, a son of Ted Arison's, referred questions about why the Arison
family trusts had operated through the Section 877 Coalition to one of
the lobbying firms, Alcalde & Fay.
At the firm, Hector Alcalde said he had listed the client as the
Section 877 Coalition for ''simplicity's sake,'' because
PricewaterhouseCoopers had already done so.
''There's no hidden agenda,'' Mr. Alcalde said.
.....
(4)
Carnival CEO defends cruise ship deal for hurricane evacuees,
September 30, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-09-30-carnival-katrina_x.htm
FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) — Carnival Corp. CEO Micky Arison defended his
company's $236 million contract with the federal government to use
cruise ships to house hurricane victims, denying reports Friday that
the vessels were mostly empty.
U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., called it a
"sweetheart" deal in a letter Thursday asking Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff to explain the contract with the
Miami-based company.
The senators alleged the contract guaranteed the Carnival Cruise Lines
brand rates that were much higher than market levels.
.....
The senators also asked Chertoff to explain why the U.S. didn't accept
Greece's offer to send two ships for free.
Gov. Jeb Bush said those ships wouldn't have arrived until Oct. 10.
Bush said the contract might be an example of government waste, "but
don't blame Carnival Cruise Lines for canceling cruise ships with
100,000 customers. That's their business."
"No good deed goes unpunished," Bush said ....
October 2, 2005
....."Many of the berths are going unfilled, which could make the cost
per person extraordinarily high," wrote Waxman.
"Even if all the berths were filled, the cost for a family of five
appears to exceed $20,000 per month.
"This would appear to be far more than other options, such as
providing community-based housing."
Waxman asked Chertoff to provide copies of the contracts, requests for
proposals and other documentation.
On September 27, U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn,
M.D. (R-OK) piled on.
The two senators are sponsoring legislation that would create a Chief
Financial Officer (CFO) to oversee all expenditures associated with
the Hurricane Katrina relief and reconstruction effort.
.....
In a joint statement they said that "the Senate Federal Financial
Management Subcommittee's investigation into a six-month $192 million
FEMA contract with Carnival Cruise Lines has discovered that taxpayers
are paying, per evacuee, four times the amount a vacation cruise
passenger would have to pay.
Three Carnival ships are only half full and mostly occupied by relief
workers.
Carnival's overhead costs in the FEMA operation are far lower than
during normal cruises.
The Carnival ships are docked.
No fuel is being used and no entertainment is being provided to the
relief workers.
Yet, taxpayers are paying $2,550 per guest per week, which is four
times the cost of a $599 per person '7 Day Western Caribbean' Cruise
from Galveston."
"When the federal government would actually save millions of dollars
by forgoing the status quo and actually sending evacuees on a
luxurious six-month cruise it is time to rethink how we are conducting
oversight. A short-term temporary solution has turned into a
long-term, grossly overpriced sweetheart deal for a cruise line,"
Obama and Coburn said.
The FEMA contract has, however, found a defender in Florida Governor
Jeb Bush.
Speaking to travel agents at an event in Fort Lauderdale he said
critics who have labeled the (Carnival) contract a "sweetheart deal"
are wrong, and that the charge could inhibit companies in Florida from
stepping forward in the future if a similar hurricane situation
develops there.
"There's some senators and politicians up there in Washington
criticizing this and I think it's wrong," the Sun-Sentinel newspaper
reports Bush as saying.
.....
(5)
McCain Lobbyist Story Has Tampa Connection, February 21, 2008
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=McCain+Lobbyist+Story+Has+Tampa+Connection&expire=&urlID=26672510&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.tbo.com%2Fcontent%2F2008%2Ffeb%2F21%2Fmccain-lobbyist-story-has-tampa-connection%2F&partnerID=97476
(Hector)Alcalde, who now lives in the Washington area, long has been
prominent in Tampa politics.
He was chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons of Tampa.
He also was a graduate of the University of Tampa and member of the
college's board and a prominent lobbyist who has represented local
governments including Hillsborough County and Tampa.
He is listed on the Arlington, Va.-based Alcalde & Fay's Web site as
the firm's founder and chairman.
Despite his Democratic roots, in recent years Alcalde has contributed
heavily to Republicans including former Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. Charlie
Crist, state Sen. Ronda Storms, Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim
Norman, and U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Adam Putnam.
.....
So, to recap the connections:
John McCain--->Vicki Iseman, lobbyist---Alcalde & Fay lobbying
firm-->Iseman's client Carnival Corporation-->Micky Arison, CEO of
Carnival-->recipient of $236 Million FEMA Katrina contracts-->Jeb
Bush, facilitator of FEMA contracts and recipient of Hector Alcalde's
largess.
So, Jeb Bush used his influence as Florida Governor to secure FEMA
contracts for Carnival Corporation, a client of Alcalde and Fay. And
magically, Hector Alcalde is a large benefactor for Jeb Bush.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/ap/politics/mainD8G2D62O5.shtml
Jeb's story here is parallel to the hot water in which McCain finds
himself.
But Jeb (*the smart one*) performs the lobbying, the influence
peddling AND gets the payoff.
Isn't it nice how it all works out for the Bush family?
__________________________________________
It always does, doesn't it
Harry