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An unlikely connection

Clinton and Murdoch linked by lobbying firm that's been dubbed 'the White House in exile'

BY GLENN THRUSH | WASHINGTON BUREAU

November 23, 2005

WASHINGTON - Anyone looking for evidence of a secret peace treaty between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rupert Murdoch has 200,000 reasons to feed their conspiracy theory.

Murdoch's News Corp. has paid the Glover Park Group, whose principals include top Clinton Democratic advisers Howard Wolfson and Gigi Georges, about $200,000 in an unsuccessful effort to block TV ratings changes that could shrink its Fox Broadcasting ad revenues, Senate records show.

In addition, Murdoch executives paid the firm - jokingly dubbed "the White House in exile" by Democrats - a big-bucks retainer for communications and organizing groups against the plan, according to sources. Clinton has no financial stake in the firm.

Glover Park has mounted a 2005 assault on K Street's lobbyists' row. The company, founded in 2001 by Bill Clinton's former spokesman Joe Lockhart and Al Gore's top strategist Carter Askew, raked in $970,000 worth of lobbying fees during the first six months of the year - after earning nothing in 2004.

The group, which doesn't shy away from lobbying Hillary Clinton or her staff, is on pace to earn more than $2.5 million from lobbying this year, according to industry sources.

That's not bad for an all-Democrat firm in a GOP town, and Clinton's ascent is hardly hurting Glover Park's business.

"It's a huge initial showing," said Alex Knott, who monitors lobbying for the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. "The connection to the Clintons is obviously an important part of their success."

Close ties

The line between the senator and the firm is permeable. Clinton frequently consults Wolfson and Georges on political matters, and Patti Solis Doyle, the woman behind the senator's powerhouse national fundraising operation, drew a Glover paycheck until earlier this year.

In January, the firm hired a one-time aide to former Sen. Tom Daschle, Joel Johnson, who wooed 14 clients from the Harbour Group, a Washington firm he founded. They include Nextel, the Major League Baseball Players Association, the Recording Industry Association of America, Airbus and dairy giant Dean Foods.

Glover Park also was part of a bipartisan group that helped kill New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's West Side stadium proposal on behalf of Cablevision, which paid the firm $630,000.

But the News Corp. account, which Wolfson secured, is the biggest and most intriguing of the bunch.

"It's hard to figure out if it's a case of conflict of interest or confluence of interest," says Doug Muzzio, a public affairs professor at Baruch College in Manhattan. "Is Wolfson the bridge between Murdoch and Hillary? Do they all sit down and have dinner at some point and work everything out? Who knows?"

Clinton and Murdoch aren't exactly buddies, but there's been a discernible thaw in relations since the 2000 Senate race, when the Murdoch-owned New York Post and Fox News hammered the former first lady remorselessly.

Media columnists have recently noted the Post's toned-down criticism of Clinton. The paper's far-right editorial page has praised Clinton's stay-the-course stance in Iraq and slammed Ed Klein's take-down biography of the former first lady as "sordid."

The Clintons, for their part, have padded around the Aussie magnate as if he were an untethered tiger.

Both Clintons have recently broken bread with Murdoch and the former president invited him to a September summit to discuss humanitarian efforts in Africa. A few months earlier, the former president recorded a respectful banquet tribute to Fox News chief Roger Ailes.

Business first

But while the Glover Park-Murdoch connection may have a political dimension, it's clearly a business marriage first.

Murdoch has long hired well-connected Democrats, including former Clinton White House staffer Gary Ginsberg, to hedge his bets and head off Democratic opposition to his anti-regulatory agenda. It was Ginsberg who recruited Wolfson.

And Murdoch doesn't demand political orthodoxy from his executives. News Corp. President Peter Chernin, for one, is a major Democratic sugar daddy, giving $100,000 in the past five years to the likes of Sen. John Kerry, Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee. In 2000, he gave $1,000 to Clinton.

Johnson, who was hired to make Glover Park a K Street player, says one of the News Corp. contracts is set to lapse soon and the firm is aggressively recruiting new clients.

"We're still on the small side by the numbers, but we've gotten some big accounts," Johnson said.

Clinton at the polls

April 12, 2005. When asked to choose sides in a matchup for president in 2008, 51 percent of New York State's registered voters would support Rudolph Giuliani, compared with 43 percent for Hillary Rodham Clinton. In contrast, when pitted against George Pataki, Clinton receives 55 percent to 36 percent for New York's governor.

May 6, 2005. Less than a month later, 47 percent of registered voters nationwide supported Giuliani, versus 46 percent for Clinton. But only 42 percent supported her against John McCain, with 50 percent.

Oct. 21, 2005. Last month, 50 percent of registered voters nationwide supported Giuliani, versus 43 percent for Clinton; 50 percent for McCain, versus 41 percent for Clinton; and 50 percent for Clinton, versus 41 percent for Condoleezza Rice.

SOURCE: MARIST COLLEGE