At what point does a client become so radioactive that no amount of money warrants continuing the relationship? Most lobby firms take a very elastic view, representing the interests of even the most reviled clients for the right sum.
So why did the powerful Livingston Group, headed by former Louisiana Rep. Robert L. Livingston, recently end its relationship with the government of Libya? Politico reported last weekend that the Washington lobby group has resigned from the multimillion-dollar Libya account, citing an email sent by Livingston partner Lauri Fitz-Pegado.
“The Livingston Group resigned yesterday from representing the GOL,” Politico quotes a Sept. 4, 2009, email from Fitz-Pegado to associates. “Please share this information as appropriate.”
Fitz-Pegado did not elaborate on the firm’s reasons. But both the decision itself and the timing raise questions, coming on the eve of Muammar Al-Qadhafi’s first-ever visit to the U.S. to address the United Nations in what is seen as the culmination of years of efforts to repair his international image.
Once called “the mad dog of the Middle East” by Ronald Reagan and connected to a half dozen terrorist attacks which killed Americans, Qadhafi has orchestrated a masterful rehabilition since renouncing his weapons of mass destruction program in 2003.
In the years since, he has turned Libya into one of the world’s largest oil producers and a key European supplier of natural gas. In 2006, the U.S. removed Libya from the state terror sponsor list, after Qadhafi agreed to make reparations to the families of the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The December 21, 1988 downing killed 270 people.
But the moment when Qadhafi is to claim his place on the world stage is Sept. 23, when he is slated to address the U.N. General Assembly, directly after U.S. President Barack Obama.
And with Livingston and others on the payroll, everything seemed on track to spin that visit into a major event.
As recently as May, the Livingston Group filed a notice to represent Libya for another year at the cost of $30,000 per month, excluding travel expenses “unless either party provides the other with written notification of intent to terminate,” according to Justice Department records. Livingston also represented the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, as Muckety detailed in an earlier story.
The account, which Livingston handled directly, was said to be highly lucrative, worth an estimated $1.2 million in 2008 and as much as $2.4 million this year, according to Newsweek.
But in recent weeks, Libya has popped onto the political radar screen in jarring ways. Libyan secret-service agent Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the Lockerbie bombings, was given a hero’s welcome in his home country last month – including a warm embrace from Qadhafi – after being released from a Scottish prison reportedly because he is terminally ill.
“This is a very raw and sensitive subject for all Americans, having lost … our compatriots in a terrorist act,” Ambassador Susan Rice told a news conference on U.N. business in September, when the United States chairs the Security Council.
“How President Qadhafi chooses to comport himself when he attends the General Assembly and the Security Council in New York has the potential either to aggravate those feelings and emotions or not.”
Libya is also scheduled to host a reception in Washington next week in honor of the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Qadhafi to power, according to an unnamed source cited by Politico.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment