The Audacity of Axelrod

The mainstream media is starting to take a closer look at this guy. So it begins...

Timothy Burger - Bloomberg:

"Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama’s White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul. One is AKPD Message and Media, the Chicago-based firm headed by David Axelrod until he left last Dec. 31 to serve as a senior adviser to the president. Axelrod was Obama’s top campaign strategist and is now helping sell the health-care plan."

Ken Vogel - Politico:

"Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser David Axelrod, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight. The unwelcome scrutiny, largely from Republicans, comes at an inopportune time as Obama seeks to shore up support for health care reform. It revolves around two separate $12 million ad campaigns advocating Obama’s health care plan that were produced and placed partly by AKPD Message and Media, a firm founded by Axelrod that employs his son and still owes Axelrod $2 million."

Stephanie Condon - CBS

"The White House and the pharmaceutical industry are pushing back against allegations that one of President Obama's senior advisers is personally benefiting from industry cooperation on health care reform. On Tuesday, the House Republican Conference published a one-page talking points memo that says, "Even as President Obama campaigned on a platform of change and transparency, recent dealings between the pharmaceutical industry and the administration raise serious questions as to whether the drug lobby is helping to bankroll a multimillion dollar severance package for one of the president’s senior advisors."

If there is one thing that any close political adviser to a sitting president should have learned by now, it is this lesson: It is not necessarily actual conflict of interest or impropriety that bites you in the ass. It is the appearance of conflict of interest and impropriety that is political poison. While not always fatal to a political career, it is always very damaging to a presidency. This was true for Bert Lance. True for Michael Deaver. True for George H.W. Bush and the hordes associated with Iran-Contra. True for the legions touched by Whitewater. True for Dick Cheney. True for Karl Rove. And it will be true for David Axelrod.

As Hugh Hewitt points out, there is a direct comparison to the Dick Cheney/Halliburton connection that had the left up in arms:

"It should take about ten minutes this morning for Robert Gibbs to provide details of Axelrod's "retained interest" in his old firm --the term used by Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg when he was blasting Dick Cheney vis-a-vis Halliburton-- and Axelrod's participation in negotiations with any interest that is providing money to any group providing money to his old firm. With those facts in hand there are scores of D.C. lawyers who can comment on whether any of the many ethics laws governing the financial interests of senior advisors to the president have been violated."

Predictably, the right is all over this like a bad rash (From Memeorandum: American Spectator, Hot Air Michelle Malkin, Ben Smith's Blog, protein wisdom, The Jawa Report, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Atlas Shrugs, RedState and Pajamas Media). So far, it is a minor blogstorm of positively smug and somewhat unseemly glee. Their enthusiasm for the the story will give the left an opportunity to dismiss this story as right wing "politics of destruction". That would be a mistake. There has been too much smoke around David Axelrod for too long. Too many stories like this. The "appearances of impropriety" continue to pile up.

Like with Jimmy Carter, the press is eager to reverse perceptions of fawning and favorable treatment of Barack Obama. They will find it easier to attack someone close to Obama rather than the popular president himself. This is the role that Bert Lance played in the Jimmy Carter administration. How Obama handles the Axelrod affair may very well turn into a bigger test of his presidency than than the health care debate. This is the lesson of the Jimmy Carter Presidency.

Axelrod is a very smart guy. He knows how to cover his tracks. He knows how to walk the line. That is why it is so surprising that he still chooses to walk so very very close to the ethical edge. Maybe it's a Chicago thing. I've been following him for some time and think he has crossed that line more than once:

October 28, 2008 - Barack Buys an Election:

"One wonders how Axelrod takes a leave from a co-located consulting firm with only three partners and where he is the “A” in ASK Public Strategies. Did they divide the office with blue tape on the floor and keep Axelrod on one side? Does he wear blinders and earplugs when in the office? But I digress... Also among ASK's clients? You guessed it. From Business Week:

"Among ASK's other clients: AT&T. The telecom company, formerly known as SBC Communications, had been a customer, Sedler confirms, when it requested ASK's help to defeat a broadband referendum..."

And why shouldn't AT&T hire Axelrod's firm? After all, the "S" in ASK is David Axelrod's partner Eric Sedler:

"Prior to joining ASK Public Strategies, Sedler served as a Public Relations Director for AT&T Corporation, managing the company’s offices in Chicago, Atlanta and Miami. In that position, he was responsible for directing the company’s corporate public affairs campaigns in the central and southeastern United States."

So AT&T gives a lot of money to ASK. Some of that money is in David Axelrod’s pocket, as one of three partners in ASK. But David Axelrod is on “leave” from ASK. Nothing to see here. Move along."

November 6, 2008 - Comment on Donklephant:

"He is twice as good Rove or if you prefer, twice as bad as Rove. Same difference. Definitely this is “Barack’s Brian” like Rove was to Bush... It would be real interesting to know who ASK’s clients are now, but the client list on their web page came down when Axelrod went to work on the Obama campaign. Axelrod said he was on leave from ASK, but again this is an organization that shares office space and has the same partners with the political consulting firm where he was still working. How does that work? In this new role shouldn’t we know who the ASK clients are? Shouldn’t we know the exact nature of his financial relationship with ASK both now and during the campaign? Where is the transparency?"

Last week - The Audacity of Astroturfing:

"The MSM mostly gave him a pass during the campaign as he claimed he was on leave from ASK (while working in the same office for the co-located political consulting firm AKPD) and said he had no intention of being part of the administration. I highlighted this relationship during the campaign, when I though it a little too cozy that ATT was a big client of ASK, and Senator Obama conveniently flip-flopped on Telecom Immunity. But nobody really cared about that, so let's move on... Per the Sun-Times, when he accepted the position with the administration in January, he "sold" his stake for $3M to be paid out out over 5 years. It was also disclosed that he received a partnership check of $151,914 from ASK in 2008. That was in 2008, when he was on "leave" from ASK. I guess it was a paid leave. So in 2008, ATT money went to ASK and ASK money went to Axelrod. Nothing to see here. Move on.

Let's walk through this buyout again. ASK Public strategies is a going concern, and will continue to have funds flow from their corporate "astroturf" clients into their coffers. Then money from the ASK coffers will flow into "Astroturf King" David Axelrod's pockets to compensate him for the buyout over the next five years, - coincidentally - exactly enough time to get past Obama's first term and election campaign. Of course, by then, he may get tired of politics, and ASK may want sell his share of the partnership right back to him. Who knows? It could happen. Audacious."

Yes, I am stealing this post title from myself. I think I can make a legitimate claim to being "patient zero" of a hot new blogospheric pandemic infection - ADS (Axelrod Derangement Syndrome). Does anyone really believe that this will be end of the revelations about David Axelrod? Barack Obama would be well advised to put some distance between himself and his favorite political adviser. When the Axelrod time bomb goes off, there will be collateral damage.

Divided and Balanced.™
Now that is fair.

Technorati tags: Chicago , Barack Obama, Health Care, ATT, Jimmy Carter, David Axelrod, audacity, graft.