William Timmons (lobbyist)

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After Timmons left the Ford White House, he formed Timmons & Company in 1975. [28] Nicknamed the "Rain Maker" for his aptitude to spur change on Capitol Hill, Timmons has used his clout in a scrupulous fashion. It was reported in 1982 that throughout his years of work in Washington, Timmons had given an honorable name to lobbying. [9]

According to a 1978 Time Magazine article, Timmons was among a small group of lobbyists leading opposition to a 1978 bill that would have required lobbyists "to reveal who pays them, who they represent, and what issues they have sought to shape." Time Magazine reported that the lobbyists were able to "kill" the bill, which stalled in Senator Abraham Ribicoff's Governmental Affairs Committee. [29] In 1979, Chrysler Corporation hired lobbyist Tommy Boggs to influence Democrats, and Timmons, "a man skilled in gaining Republican sympathy for corporate causes," in their work to secure loan guarantees. [30] It has been opined that "Chrysler ought to name a couple of new models after [Tommy] Boggs and Timmons." [9]

In 1983-1986, Timmons lobbied for Bophuthatswana. [31] According to Paul Volcker's Independent Inquiry Commission report commission by the United Nations, in 1992–1995 Timmons worked with entrepreneur Samir Vincent and public relations consultant John Venners in attempts to get an oil deal with Iraq, which was under UN sanctions at the time. [32] [33] Timmons and seven employees of Timmons and Company were listed as lobbyists for Bristol-Myers Squibb with "revolving door" connections to government in 2001 by Public Citizen; [34] they listed the same eight in 2002 and 2003. [35]

In 2008, the Obama campaign, which itself had an unpaid advisor from Timmons & Co. (later hired as an employee), [36] referred to Timmons as "one of Washington’s most famous and powerful lobbyists" when Timmons was tapped for planning help by the McCain campaign. [37] Time Magazine reported that Timmons's lobbying registrations "include work on a number of issues that have become flashpoints in the presidential campaign. He has registered to work on bills that deal with the regulations of troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, a bill to provide farm subsidies and bills that regulate domestic oil-drilling." [1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Scherer, Michael (September 12, 2008). "McCain Taps Lobbyist for Transition". Time. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  2. Salant, Jonathan D.; Burger, Timothy J. (September 23, 2008). "McCain Transition Head Lobbied for Freddie Mac Before Takeover". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Who's Who in America 1995. Vol. 2. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who. 1994. p. 3690.
  4. Costas Panagopoulos (2007). Rewiring Politics. LSU Press. p. 6. ISBN   978-0-8071-3206-7.
  5. "Dole aide organizes transfer of power" . Newspapers.com. Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon). Washington Post. October 14, 1996. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  6. F. Clifton Whiten with Jerome Tuccille (1994). Politics as a Noble Calling: The Memoirs of F. Clifton White. Jameson Books. p. 5. ISBN   978-0-915463-64-0.
  7. William Edwards (1970). "The Chicago Tribune".{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  8. Bill Connely (1973). "Richmond Times Dispatch".{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  9. 1 2 3 Michael Kilian and Arnold Sawislak (1982). Who Runs Washington . St. Martin's Press. p.  156. ISBN   978-0-312-87024-9. Who Runs Washington.
  10. Charles O. Jones (1999). Separate but Equal Branches: Congress and the Presidency. Chatham House Publishers, New York. pp. 146–147. ISBN   1-889119-15-6.
  11. 1 2 Rowland Evans Jr., Robert D. Novak (1971). Nixon in the White House: The Frustration of Power. Random House, New York. pp.  376–377. ISBN   0-394-46273-4.
  12. 1 2 3 Jon Wiener (2000). Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. University of California Press. pp. 2–5, 34. ISBN   978-0-520-22246-5. ...when Nixon was facing reelection, and when the 'clever Beatle' was living in New York and joining up with the antiwar movement. The Nixon administration learned that he and some radical friends were talking about organizing a national concert tour to coincide with the 1972 election campaign, a tour that would combine rock music and radical politics, during which Lennon would urge young people to register to vote, and vote against the war, which meant, of course, against Nixon. The administration learned about Lennon's idea from an unlikely source: Senator Strom Thurmond. Early in 1972 he sent a secret memo to John Mitchell and the White House [Timmons] reporting on Lennon's plans and suggesting that deportation 'would be a strategy counter-measure'.
  13. 1 2 Larry Kane (2005). Lennon Revealed . Running Press. p.  122. ISBN   978-0-7624-2364-4. The assistant to the President [Timmons] wrote back in March and assured Senator Thurmond that the government had issued direct orders to rescind John's visa.
  14. Andrew Gumbel (February 5, 2000). "The Ballard of John & (Yoko) J Edgar". The Independent (London). The veteran South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond sent a confidential memo to the White House warning of Lennon's political leanings and adding: "If Lennon's visa is terminated it would be a strategy counter-measure." A few weeks later a reply came from William E Timmons, a presidential aide: "I thought you would be interested in learning that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has served notice on him that he is to leave this country no later than March 15."
  15. Leon Wildes (Spring 1998). "Not Just Any Immigration Case". Cardozo Life. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Archived from the original on October 12, 2008. Retrieved February 26, 2009. A memo dated February 4, 1972, was forwarded to former Attorney General John Mitchell and Bill Timmons of the White House by Sen. Strom Thurmond, describing Lennon as a threat to the US government and the reelection campaign of Richard Nixon because of Lennon's affiliations with members of the Radical Left, which was then trying to stimulate voter registration of 18-year-olds. The presidential election in 1972 was the first one in which 18-year-olds could vote, making 18- to 20-year-olds a very important constituency. I also uncovered a memo in which Marks is advised by Washington to deny all applications, to revoke the Lennons' voluntary departure privilege, and to schedule the deportation hearing for March 16, 1972—strong evidence of prejudgment of the case for political purposes.
  16. Another copy of Thurmond's memo, addressed to Attorney General John Mitchell, with handwritten note "I also sent Bill Timmons a copy of the memorandums", had been made public in 1975: Chet Flippo (July 31, 1975). "Lennon's Lawsuit: Memo from Thurmond". Rolling Stone. No. 192. p. 16.
  17. Dean J. Kotlowski (2001). Nixon's Civil Rights . Harvard University Press. p.  253. ISBN   978-0-674-00623-2. William Timmons President-Ford.
  18. 1 2 James M. Cannon (1998). Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History. University of Michigan Press. pp. 100, 226. ISBN   978-0-472-08482-1.
  19. John A. Farrell (2002). Tip O'Neill and the Democratic Century. Back Bay. p. 368. ISBN   978-0-316-18570-7.
  20. Theodore H. White (1975). Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon. Harvard University Press. p.  6. ISBN   0-689-10658-0.
  21. Shirley Anne Warshaw (1996). Powersharing. SUNY Press. p. 137. ISBN   978-0-7914-2869-6.
  22. Robert T. Hartman (1980). Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 170, 209, 281. ISBN   978-0-07-026951-4.
  23. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak (1981). The Reagan Revolution: An Inside Look at the Transformation of the U.S. Government. Dutton. p. 44. ISBN   978-0-525-18970-1.
  24. "Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations Appointment of Nine Members". The American Presidency Project. April 19, 1978.
  25. Elizabeth Drew (1981). Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign. Simon and Schuster. pp. 197 and 311. ISBN   978-0-671-43034-4.
  26. Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer (2005). The Reagan Presidency. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 159–160. ISBN   978-0-7425-3415-5.
  27. The Wall Street Journal. 1986. p. 1.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. Gordon Adams (1982). The Politics of Defense Contracting. Transaction Publishers. p. 146. ISBN   978-0-87871-012-6.
  29. "The Swarming Lobbyists", Time, August 7, 1978; reprinted in Byron W. Daynes and Raymond Tatalovich, ed. (1980). Contemporary Readings in American Government. D. C. Heath. p. 120. ISBN   978-0-669-01163-0. But in these five instances, and others like them, the force that proved decisive in blocking passage this year arose out of a dramatic new development in Washington: the startling increase in the influence of special-interest lobbyists. ... The lobbyists have grown so able and strong that last week a mere handful of them was able to kill another bill, one of particular significance to them. It would have required the lobbyists to reveal who pays them, who they represent and what issues they have sought to shape. The bill, which finally passed the House in April, came up last week before Senator Abraham Ribicoff's Governmental Affairs Committee—and was promptly consigned to either imminent death or limbo by the lobbyists. Leading the assault against it were such diverse persuaders as William Timmons, the former Capitol Hill liaison man for the Nixon and Ford Administrations, Freelancers Maurice Rosenblatt and William Bonsib, and Diane Rennert of the Association of American Publishers. In a multiple assault, they first threw their weight behind a much milder version of the bill, which was substituted for Ribicoff's stiff version. Despite telephone calls from the President, even the soft bill was then stalled indefinitely in committee, since no sponsor was willing to lead a drive to get it approved by the full Senate. Declared triumphant Lobbyist Rennert: 'It's dead, dead, dead'.
  30. Robert B. Reich and John D. Donahue (1985). New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System. Times Books. pp. 113, 149. ISBN   978-0-8129-1180-0.
  31. Nixon, Ron (2016). Selling Apartheid: South Africa's Global Propaganda War. London, U.K.: Pluto Press. p. 107. ISBN   9780745399140. OCLC   980912571.
  32. Paul A. Volcker; et al. (September 7, 2005). "THE MANAGEMENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAMME Volume II – Report of Investigation Programme Background" (PDF). CBC News.
  33. Jeffrey A. Meyer and Mark G. Califano (2006). Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Program and the Threat to the U.N. PublicAffairs. ISBN   978-1-58648-472-9.
  34. "Bristol-Myers Squibb Lobbyists in 2001, With Revolving Door Connections". Public Citizen. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
  35. "The Other Drug War 2003: Drug Companies Deploy an Army of 675 Lobbyist to Protect Profits". Public Citizen. June 23, 2003. Retrieved January 15, 2008.
  36. "Obama adviser lobbied for oil group - First Read". MSNBC . Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  37. "Obama Press Call: Campaign Memo and Conference Call on a McCain Lobbyist-Run White House". Obama campaign memos. 2008Central.net. September 14, 2008. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
Bill Timmons
White House Director of Legislative Affairs
In office
November 5, 1969 December 31, 1974
Political offices
Preceded by White House Director of Legislative Affairs
1969–1974
Succeeded by