Verbal Whore *wink*
2004-02-09 | 7:15 p.m.

About Kerry:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show.

Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

One of the companies to pay Kerry $1,000 for a speech in 1987, Miami-based Metalbanc, was later indicted, along with two executives, on charges it helped the Cali drug cartel in Colombia launder money in the United States. The charges eventually were dropped because the firm was defunct.

At the time of the 1987 speech to Metalbanc, Kerry was chairman of the Senate subcommittee that investigated drug trafficking and money laundering.

Kerry, now the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he didn't learn about the drug connection to the company or its executives, who also gave him political donations, until The Boston Globe informed him of it in 1996. He donated several thousand dollars to charities to make amends.

Kerry's ethics reports show he made more than 90 paid speeches between 1985, when he first took office, and 1990, when Congress began the move to end honoraria.

The senator's campaign acknowledged Sunday that he accepted the speaking fees, but said he also gave several speeches a year for free.

"He gave these speeches to address what he saw as the important issues at the time such as the growing national deficit," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. "In compliance with the law, he accepted small speaking fees from some of the groups he spoke to, and, in at least one case, donated that money to charity."

At the time Kerry could accept speaking fees, senators were forced to abide by annual limits, which ranged from $26,568 to $35,800.

A number of veteran lawmakers often collected more than $100,000 in a single year but had to give everything over the limit to charity. For instance, former House Ways and Means committee chairman Dan Rostenskowski once donated $155,000 of his speaking fees in one year to charity.

And Sen. John Heinz, R-Pennsylvania, the late husband of Kerry's wife, Teresa, donated all $12,000 in speaking fees he made in 1986.

Kerry reported donating a speaking fee to charity only once, when he was paid $2,000 in 1988 to speak to the RJR Nabisco tobacco and food conglomerate, his reports state.

A longtime federal election regulator said Kerry's extensive speaking efforts after he arrived in Washington followed a path taken by many new lawmakers who were not wealthy. With congressional salaries half what they are today, many lawmakers pressed to find outside income from special interests.

"Members were often pulled almost like a magnet into a circle of lobbyists who were very willing to pay large honoraria for them to give a brief speech or a talk to their organization or group," said Kent Cooper, former public disclosure chief for the Federal Election Commission who now runs a Web site that studies political donations and lobbying.

"This provided instant cash to a member and at the same time built a relationship with that lobbyist or organization," Cooper said.

Several of the Democratic candidates this year have accepted special interest speaking fees in their career. Former Gen. Wesley Clark collected more than $1 million in speaking and consulting fees after his military retirement, and Howard Dean accepted speaking fees about a half-dozen times while governor of Vermont governor.

In 1985, Kerry's freshman year in the Senate, he supplemented his $75,000 salary with $19,480 in speaking fees. The next year the fees grew to $22,725.

Kerry's paid speaking engagements included several traditional Democratic constituencies, like the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union; law firms and the St. Louis Women's Democratic Committee.

Kerry, who sharply criticizes special interest money and big oil companies while campaigning, earned handsomely from some of Washington's most famous lobbies as well as corporate America.

For instance, oil giant Chevron paid him $2,000 in 1986 for participating in a round-table discussion. Large financial companies, among them Paine Webber, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, also paid to hear Kerry speak, as did the Chicago Board of Trade and defense contractors such as Allied Signal and Textron.

Kerry also spoke for pay to the National Restaurant Association ($1,000 in 1985), the National Association of Independent Insurers ($1,000 in 1986), the American Bankers Association ($2,000 in 1986) and the National Association of Manufacturers.

"It certainly didn't seem to influence his voting record," said Laura Brown Narvaiz, a spokeswoman for the NAM, which paid Kerry $1,000 for a speech in September 1986. "I don't think he voted in favor of our positions very many times."

The Distilled Spirits Council, which paid Kerry $2,000 for a speech in 1987, said such engagements gave a chance for the liquor lobby to bend the ears of policy-makers on issues such as taxes, free trade and restrictions on alcohol ads.

"When lawmakers speak with us, there's an exchange of views and they come away with more information about what's important to our industry," said Frank Coleman, the council's senior vice president.

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