JOSHUA FRANK: The Merger of Senator Max Baucus and Leo Giacometto

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Washington’s Pay to Play Politics Hits the Speedway

By Joshua Frank --World News Trust

It doesn’t get much more devious than this. Last month, on Oct. 30, Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana held a little “NASCAR Fundraiser” in Atlanta, Georgia. The cause and locale were far from Big Sky Country. Attendees of the benefit forked over $2,500 apiece to eat breakfast at the lavish Ritz-Carlton Hotel and spend an afternoon at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The brains behind the peddle-to-the-metal fundraiser belonged to Leo Giacometto, a sleazy Republican operative who served as Montana Republican Senator Conrad Burns’ Chief of Staff during the latter part of the 1990s. Giacometto was one of the key architects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and has since enjoyed the turnstile environment of Washington politics and now heads up Gage LLC, a corporate lobbying firm based in Washington, DC.

Giacometto has long been a key player in national telecom policy and some of his firm’s top clients include AT&T, Nextel, MCI, and Bresnan Communications. Giacometto’s old boss Conrad Burns chairs the Commerce Committee subcommittee on telecommunications and Max Baucus is a ranking member of the finance committee, which also plays a huge role in developing national telecom policy.

Leo Giacometto is paying to play.

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http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=1630

[Wetzelbill]

1. damn it Max

Just damn it.

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2. .