Thread: CNOOC eyes help from firms with Bush ties

By Adam EntousThu Jun 30, 7:46 PM ET

A Chinese oil company making a blockbuster bid to buy a U.S. oil producer is lobbying for the deal using firms whose top ranks include some of President Bush's biggest fund-raisers, members of administration boards on intelligence and trade, and former campaign advisers.

China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd. has offered $18.5 billion in cash to acquire California-based Unocal Corp., sparking a backlash on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted overwhelmingly to try to block the Bush administration from approving the proposed deal. Opponents fear Beijing may be trying to corner world supplies at a time of rising gasoline prices and global competition for crude.

Some Republican insiders are also concerned about political fallout over a web of connections between the Bush White House and CNOOC's paid advocates in Washington -- the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and media advisers Public Strategies Inc.

Akin Gump partners Alan Feld and James Langdon, and senior adviser and former U.S. Rep. Bill Paxon, rank among Bush's $100,000 fund-raising "pioneers," according to Texans for Public Justice, which tracks political donations.

Bush's media adviser in both presidential campaigns, Mark McKinnon, is vice chairman of Texas-based Public Strategies.

"Certainly Akin Gump has access in part because of its campaign contributions to Bush's political career," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice.

Republican consultant Charlie Black was skeptical. "Friendship doesn't get you very far when you're developing policy," he said.

INTERNAL DEBATE

The White House has yet to take a public position on the proposed CNOOC deal, which could be blocked on national security grounds. Sources said an internal debate has started, pitting administration free traders against defense hawks worried about China's growing clout.

"It's a real fault line and the fact that all of Bush's friends are working for the communist Chinese while gas prices are at $2.50" concerns some of his fellow Republicans, said a prominent Republican consultant who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said an inter-agency review would address any national security concerns, and that he knew of no involvement by former or current Bush advisers in CNOOC's bid for Unocal, the ninth largest U.S. oil and gas producer.

U.S. Treasury Department spokesman Tony Fratto said any inter-agency review would be "strictly on the merits."

CNOOC's bid topped a $16 billion-plus offer that Unocal had already accepted from Chevron Corp., also based in California. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who once served on the board of Chevron, has recused herself from the matter.

Public Strategies' point man on CNOOC, Mark Palmer, rebuffed questions about the firm's ties to the White House as "a red herring and a ghost story."

"We are a corporate communications consulting firm and are providing a service to our client. We're not lobbying," Palmer said, adding that McKinnon would not work on the CNOOC campaign "at all."

FRIENDS AND FUNDRAISERS

Bush appointed Langdon, a long-time friend and fundraiser, earlier this year to serve as chairman of both his Foreign Intelligence Advisory and Intelligence Oversight Boards.

The lawyer that will steer CNOOC through an inter-agency review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States -- Akin Gump partner Edward Rubinoff -- is a member of the president's export council subcommittee on export administration, which advises the administration on export controls and security-related trade issues.

The Committee on Foreign Investment would determine whether the deal poses any risk to national or economic security.

Daniel Spiegel, a member of Akin Gump's CNOOC team and a former Clinton administration appointee, said Langdon has decided to recuse himself from CNOOC matters at the firm because of his role on Bush's intelligence advisory board.

"It is extremely unlikely that this issue would ever come up before the presidential advisory board that Langdon is on. If it did, he would recuse himself from it," a Langdon spokeswoman said.

Rubinoff does not plan to recuse himself, Spiegel said, "because this board that he is on is a high-level technical advisory committee on export matters, which is not what is involved here."

Paxon, who chaired Bush's transition advisory team after serving as a key adviser in the 2000 campaign, will be "assisting" in the CNOOC effort, Spiegel said, adding that any past fund-raising activities were irrelevant. Feld will have "no involvement with the CNOOC matter," Spiegel said. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Richard Cowan)

"It's a real fault line and the fact that all of Bush's friends are working for the communist Chinese while gas prices are at $2.50" concerns some of his fellow Republicans, said a prominent Republican consultant who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

And I thought Clinton sucked.

Can we not find a person to represent We the People?

I don't like this from the start. I bet I will hate it at the end.