Cravenly Groveling

Remember that superb article on foreign lobbying I described a while back? Well, apparently the two PR/Lobbying firms that got so badly taken by Ken Silverstein are now accusing him of being unethical.

My story in the July issue of the magazine details how two beltwaylobby shops I approached, on the pretense that I represented a shadyLondon-based energy firm with a stake in Turkmenistan, proposed towhitewash the image of that country’s Stalinist regime. Now, havingbeen punk’d (as PR Week put it), Cassidy & Associates and APCO are seeking to lie and spin their way out of the embarrassing situation in which they find themselves.      

Both lobbying firms have complained that my tactics were “unethical.” Now APCO has issued a press releaseacknowledging that it met with the Maldon Group–the name of myfictitious energy firm–but saying that it was never actually interestedin winning the contract to work for Turkmenistan. “If Silverstein hadbothered to have even a second meeting or to further engage, he couldhave found out that he would not make the cut to become one of ourclients,” the press release says.

It’strue there was no second meeting, but only because I rejected overturesfrom the firm to hold one. Indeed, APCO began cravenly groveling to winthe Turkmenistan deal immediately after my meeting with the firm at itsWashington offices in late February.

The whole incident gets more and more ironic (I’d laugh if I weren’t sure that these two firms hadn’t already sold our our foreign policy to the next biggest bidder). Because these "pros" in influence peddling and damage control are now doing a piss poor job of controlling the damage from the article.

Suffice it to say, our foreign policy has not only been sold out to the highest bidders, but it’s been sold out by incompetent hucksters. Now how’s that going to look on the gravestone of our great Republic?