Who is Richard Hohlt?

[Jcrowley]

...“Asked by one of Libby’s lawyers if he had talked about Plame with anybody else before outing her in his column, Novak said he’d discussed her with a lobbyist named Richard Hohlt. Who, the lawyer pressed, is Hohlt?”

It turned out that Hohlt is “a very good source” of Novak as both talk “everyday”; A lobbyist and a “powerbroker”, Hohlt reportedly seeks little media attention, although represents such influential clients as Bristol Myers, Chevron, JPMorgan Chase and the Nuclear Energy Association (not to mention his status as a ‘Super Ranger’ for his remarkable fund raising talents for the Republican Party.)

According to some affiliates of the obscure lobbyist, speaking to Newsweek, Hohlt is “known as the person you can go to to try to get stuff in Novak’s column.” Though Novak denied the suggestion as “ridiculous,” nothing else can explain the columnist’s daily hunts for scoops from Hohlt. The latter is so influential in fact, that before publishing his column revealing Plame’s identity, Novak “did something most journalists rarely do: He gave the lobbyist an advance copy of his column.” In turn, Hohlt, passed on the copy to Rove, according to his statement made to Newsweek. The White House clique thus had advanced knowledge of the “bombshell” that was yet to come, three days later. The tripartite scandal: One that revealed, or rather further confirmed, the troubling matrimony between the state, the media and the lobbyists, is hardly an individual account of rogue elements that behaved on its own behest.

“But Hohlt’s more significant role may be his leadership of a secretive social group of GOP heavy hitters and, occasionally, White House officials (including Rove and White House chief of staff Josh Bolton), who convene to smoke cigars and mull over politics,” wrote Isikoff. The group’s name is the Off The Record Club. Hohlt is designated as “keeper of the flame.” This travesty has apparently been going on for over 15 years.

As such dirty politics is being actively pursued behind close doors — involving self-serving officials and politicians, their media beneficiaries, larger corporations, religious zealots and the rest — one has to wonder how relevant the American people are to the democratic process in their own country, and more to how they are governed and by whom?

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=92886

[nam78_two]

1. Washington is crawling with lobbyists

And unfortunately, they get so much less scrutiny than their counterparts in politics or in the media (not that those get much scrutiny either).

On the enviro/animal welfare side, if you have never heard of Richard Berman (and his bogus "Centre for consumer freedom") google him. He is quite the busy bee. Of course saying he restricts himself to those issues is painting his interests in too narrow a fashion. He is also against the minimum wage and labor rights in general :eyes:, though he seems to have moved to the enviro/animal side more recently.

[Jcrowley]

2. Who are these people?

Destroyers of our Earth.

Holht- Griles- Berman.

Wormtongues.

Vampires.

Shine the light on them.

Peace out nam.

:hi:

[nam78_two]

4. Worse

They don't even have the coolness factor vampires have ;).
:hi:

[EST]

3. Pardon my tunnel vision, but a point that desperately needs

to be made is that rove & co. obviously had three dammit days to hit the roof and tell Novak, "Don't you DARE publish this and we want to know right not where you heard about ms. Plame/Wilson and who else knows?"

Then they should have moved heaven and earth to do whatever it took to limit damage and and protect whatever assets they possibly could.

If I were in a position to judge this outrage, I would convict them of their crimes immediately, since it is also obvious they knew and approved of the building treason and had advance notice.

I am so disgusted with these despicable scoundrels.