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Related stories: External LinksMORE LINKSWashington Post Rove Met With Two From Drug Industry While Holding StockVin Weber, an "outside lobbyist" with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and Alan F. Holmer, the president of the same organization, met with pResidential advisor Karl Rove last month in his White House office. Rove owns $240,000 worth of stock in two of the nation's largest drug companies.
Extra! / Update NPR Health Reform "Debate" Needs Second OpinionWeber lobbies/lobbied for five big health care insurance companies FAIR has reported (1993) on how, when Weber was a commentator for National Public Radio he frequently offered his opinions about health care issues, but never revealed that he was paid to shill for the insurance giants.
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PERSON PROFILEVin WeberVin Weber, Vice Chairman of Empower America, is a former Minnesota Republican Congressman, and banker. He now lives in Virginia and is the new head of the private National Endowment for Democracy, and was formerly a Senior Fellow at the Bradley-funded Progress and Freedom Foundation (www.pff.org). Weber had close ties to the former National Policy Forum, a charity setup by former GOP Chair Haley Barbour to develop policy ideas for the Republican Party, but which lost its 501(c)(3) status for being too Republican. Super LobbystAccording to the Center for Public Integrity, Weber has been a registered lobbyist for the Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Mobil Corp, Microsoft, and the Edison Electric Institute. Weber also has very close ties to the Center of the American Experiment, a Republican think tank located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also a media darling both in Washington,D.C., and his homestate of Minnesota, where he frequently appears as a commentator on public television and radio. What is Weber up to now? Here's an excerpt from a New York Times story from 1998: Former Representative Vin Weber is among the most successful of a new crop of Republican lobbyists. Working as a tag team of political influence, Mr. Weber often pairs up with Mr. Downey for clients, including Microsoft. He works out of the gleaming office of Clark & Wienstock, a Wall Street consulting firm that did not have a Washington outpost until Mr. Weber opened one in 1994, after he retired from Congress. As one of Mr. Gingrich's best friends in the House, the Minnesota Republican was in immediate demand. "People were looking for G.O.P. consultants and lobbyists all over the place," Mr. Weber said in an interview. Mr. Weber now heads an eight-man office that reported lobbying revenues of $2.2 million in 1997. Like Mr. Downey, Mr. Weber is still an inside player, jetting off earlier this year to join Mr. Gingrich at a Republican event in Palm Springs, Calif. And he, too, finds his new profession more rewarding in many ways. "With no disrespect to Congress," Mr. Weber said, "not everything you do as a Congressman is very exciting."
WorkingForChange Back to the futureThe National Endowment for Democracy is back and up to its old tricks againWe recently reported on how former Republican Congressman Vin Weber (MN), now a Washington, DC "Super Lobbyist", had recently been appointed to head the government-funded National Endowment for Democracy. Now conservative movement watcher Bill Berkowitz has shed some light on the ideology, genesis, history and methods of the NED, and it's not a pretty sight. Berkowitz writes that the NED was created to "do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades." What has the NED done since its inception in 1983? According to a policy analyst at the Cato Institute - someone who should theoretically be friendly to Weber and the NED, it: "...has a history of corruption and financial mismanagement, is superfluous at best and often destructive. Through the endowment, the American taxpayer has paid for special-interest groups to harass the duly elected governments of friendly countries, interfere in foreign elections, and foster the corruption of democratic movements." More precisely, Berkowitz points out: The NED...provides money, technical support, supplies, training programs, media know-how, public relations assistance and state-of-the-art equipment to select political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, and other media. It's aim is to destabilize progressive movements, particularly those with a socialist or democratic socialist bent. OpenSecrets.org List of Vin Weber lobbying clients1997-2000Air Transport Assn of America
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MORE LINKSKevin Featherly and Frank Jossi Weber splits with Center of American ExperimentQuestions whether think tank will survive Many credit the Center of the American Experiment with catalyzing Minnesota’s conservative shift. But after a dramatic shakeup, can it maintain its influence?
Rob Hotakainen Vin Weber's firm paid $65,000/month to lobby for UAEThe former Minnesota congressman is a lobbyist hired last year to defend the United Arab Emirates' image. He said politics got in the way of the facts in the ports deal As one of the top lobbyists in Washington, Vin Weber is paid good money to defend the reputation of the United Arab Emirates.
Josh Marshall Vin Weber lobbied government, think tanks, academia and media for UAEThe one of those [UAE lobbying] deals which seemed most tied to working Congress, the executive branch and media circles in DC is the Clark & Weinstock contract. They bill themselves as specializing in "reputation and crisis management."
David Rubenstein Vin Weber — A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing...The Star Tribune and MPR play Minnesota-nice and give Weber a pass. He’s billed as the former Congressman, an influential Republican with a long political history. MPR also notes his affiliation with the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. Neither mentions what he does for a living. Weber is managing partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Clark and Weinstock, “a consulting firm providing strategic advice to businesses interested in the policy-making process of the legislative and executive government branches,” as it’s described on the Humphrey Institute website.
City Pages Vin Weber, Norm Coleman campaign strategist, spinning the Wellstone Memorial:"Vin Weber was feeding reporters on October 29. "What a complete, total, absolute sham," the Star Tribune quoted him as saying in an article that ran the next morning. "The DFL clearly intends to exploit Wellstone's memory totally, completely and shamelessly for political gain. To them, Wellstone's death, apparently, was just another campaign event."
New York Times National Endowment for Democracy Funded Venezuelan Coup PerpetratorsSomeone should tell the NED that a coup is the opposite of democracy In a stunning revelation the New York Times reported on April 24, 2002 that the US-government funded nonprofit agency called the National Endowment for Democracy - whose board chairman is former Republican Congressman/Super Lobbyist Vin Weber, had funnelled more than $877,000 into Venezuela opposition groups in the weeks and months before the recently aborted coup attempt
Minnesota Historical Society VIN WEBERAn Inventory of His Congressional Files and Related Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
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Venezuela at the Crossroads
