Ashcroft A Lobbyist? Who Would Hire Him? How Much Is It Going To Cost Us Taxpayers?

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is now a lobbyist representin eBay. I wonder how the executives at eBay arrived at the decision to hire Ashcroft and his firm? What would motivate a company that sells just about ANYTHING--and some of that quite outrageous, as those of us that have watched the Tonight Show have seen--to hire a man that is so narrow-minded and confused about what it means to be an American? Do we all remember that Ashcroft spent THOUSANDS of our tax dollars to cover the naked breasts of a sculpture placed on the steps of the building where he often gave press statements? Instead of moving his venue of choice, he spent THOUSANDS to cover up something that has been a representational piece of classical art for decades.

Can a man that thinks like this really make a decent lobbyist? Only in a town where the fix is in... and believe me, when it comes to Ashcroft, big business and lobbyists, the FIX is in at the White House, the Capital Building and SCOTUS.

Ashcroft Firm Lobbies For Tech Titans

As eBay heads to the U.S. Supreme Court next week for its closely watched patent case, the Internet giant is receiving help from a lobbying firm run by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

eBay is not the only tech titan to call on the lobbying firm run by the nation's former top cop. Oracle, for example, paid the Ashcroft Group LLC $220,000 last year for help on antitrust issues. The relationship between tech companies and politicians is getting increasingly tighter, as the industry matures.

In the case of eBay, the Ashcroft Group registered last month as its lobbyist to assist with patent reform. The eBay case, which will go before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 29, deals with a patent lawsuit that the Internet giant lost to the MercExchange. A Supreme Court decision is expected to clarify whether a lower court can rule against a defendant in a patent case, yet forgo issuing an injunction to halt the use of the patents in question.

eBay is working directly with Ashcroft's associate, Juleanna Glover Weiss, former press secretary to Vice President Dick Cheney, and not Ashcroft, an eBay representative noted. She is expected to tackle such issues as public policy and the media for the Internet giant.

Oracle, however, is working directly with Ashcroft, whose firm it hired last year. The Ashcroft Group registered as Oracle's lobbyist in mid-October , a week before the Department of Justice extended its antitrust review into the software maker's Siebel Systems acquisition.

The Siebel antitrust matter was resolved in short order and allowed to go forward, a stark contrast to Oracle's drawn out antitrust battle with the DOJ over its plans to acquire PeopleSoft. Ashcroft was serving as Attorney General at the time of the PeopleSoft fight, which the government ultimately lost in court.