Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Friday, May 17, 2013

Another Weiner Scandal Even Before He Announces For The Mayor's Race

He was supposed to announce next week for the mayor's race.

Now, along with TwitterGate, he'll have to explain this:

The State Department, under Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, created an arrangement for her longtime aide and confidante Huma Abedin to work for private clients as a consultant while serving as a top adviser in the department. 

Ms. Abedin did not disclose the arrangement — or how much income she earned — on her financial report. It requires officials to make public any significant sources of income. An adviser to Mrs. Clinton, Philippe Reines, said that Ms. Abedin was not obligated to do so. 

The disclosure of the agreement that Ms. Abedin made with the State Department comes as her husband, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat, prepares for a mayoral run in New York City. Politico reported the arrangement on Thursday afternoon. 

Ms. Abedin declined a request for an interview, but the picture that emerges from interviews and records suggests a situation where the lines were blurred between Ms. Abedin’s work in the high echelons of one of the government’s most sensitive executive departments and her role as a Clinton family insider. 

While continuing her work at the State Department, in the latter half of 2012, she also worked for Teneo, a strategic consulting firm, which was founded by Doug Band, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. Teneo has advised corporate clients like Coca-Cola and MF Global, the collapsed brokerage firm run by Jon S. Corzine, a former governor of New Jersey. 

At the same time, Ms. Abedin served as a consultant to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation and worked in a personal capacity for Mrs. Clinton as she prepared to transition out of her job as secretary of state. It is not clear what role Mrs. Clinton played in approving the arrangement.

Some good-government groups have been critical of such situations, saying public employees’ loyalty should be solely to the public and their government work, rather than private firms and figures.

 Ms. Abedin reached her new working arrangement in June 2012, when she returned from maternity leave, quietly leaving her position as deputy chief of staff and becoming a special government employee, which is essentially a consultant. A State Department official said that change freed her from the requirement that she disclose her private earnings for the rest of the year on her financial disclosure forms.

Still, during that period, she continued to be identified publicly in news reports as Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Officials in the State Department and Clinton circles seem especially sensitive about the arrangement, and no one would speak about it on the record.

Earlier this month, Mr. Weiner released a copy of the couple’s 2012 tax return showing that they had income of more than $490,000. But when pressed on the matter, Mr. Weiner declined to discuss what, if any, income Ms. Abedin derived from work done outside the State Department.

 An associate of Ms. Abedin’s said on Thursday that the arrangement allowed her to work from her home in New York, rather than at the State Department’s headquarters in Washington, and to spend more time with her child and husband. She earned approximately $135,000 from the department during 2012.

It is not clear how much Ms. Abedin was paid by Mrs. Clinton privately, or from the Clinton Foundation and Teneo. The Clintons have described Ms. Abedin as a surrogate daughter to them. Ms. Abedin, who is one of Mrs. Clinton’s most trusted advisers, ended her consulting practice in March, when she moved on to become director of Mrs. Clinton’s transition office.

Melanie Sloane, executive director of CREW, an ethics watchdog group, said the arrangement that Ms. Abedin had seemed unusual. “If she was being held out as a deputy chief of staff, it would be highly unusual for her to be a part-time employee or a consultant,” she said. “Being a deputy chief of staff at the State Department is generally considered more than a full-time job.” 

Interesting how this news came out just days before Weiner was set to announce his mayoral bid.

It's almost as if somebody in power doesn't want him to run.

11 comments:

  1. If you are old enough you will remember the show Laugh In, as Artie Johnson made the following remark,"Very Interesting, But dumb". So much for the weenie roast, of interest the Times article about the Quinn campaign attacking Bill Thompson and his ally Alphonse D'Amato. It indicates the Quinn folks concerned about the recent gains by the Thompson campaign. Of note, Quinn falls back on her anti-woman posture while attacking Thompson. The Thompson campaign responds with Merryl Tisch and Betsy Gotbaum starting a new group Women for Thompson. This may turn out to be more interesting then the cat fight once seen on the TV series Dynasty. WOW!!

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    1. It seems these two candidates think they're in the lead and will face off come September.

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  2. Read between the lines of Peter Goodman Ed in the Apple for what I detect is a shift by the UFT from Di Blasio to Thompson given Goodman's branding DB as "left" and Thompson as "centrist." The UFT leadership always hates left.

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    1. UFT will endorse Thompson. You can bet on it. June 12 fundraiser held by Merryl Tisch will also feature Randi Weingarten:

      http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2013/05/merryl-tisch-hosts-women-for-thompson.html

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  3. If Tish and Al are backing Thompson, I think it's clear the UFT shouldn't trust him.

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  4. I agree but there is history here. Mulgrew said he loves Tisch. And the UFT helped make anti-union D'Amato a senator. when he won the primary against Javits, Javits decided to run as an independent despite being a sure loser. But they wanted to keep left-leaning Liz Holtzman out of the Senate and knowing D'Amato would win the UFT backed javits thus losing a pro-union senator. History shows that for the UFT it is better dead than red.

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  5. I had previously written that Thompson was a Potemkin candidate, a placeholder present only to take votes away from others, but apparently I was mistaken, and a coalition of elites is placing its chips on him.

    Perhaps they see see Quinn's vulnerability, and still want someone else they can control.

    As for the UFT's endorsement, we can safely assume that whatever they do, they'l screw up and make things worse for teachers.

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    1. All of these rich white people like Tisch and rich white people wanna-be's like Weingarten backing him tell you that he has moved from Potemkin candidate to the new favorite for the elite now that Quinn is floundering.

      Yeah, they know he can be controlled.

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  6. If it comes down to a two horse race between Quinn and Thompson, which of the two would be a better choice for teachers? I assume Thompson as I believe ABQ.

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    1. Thompson is better than Quinn the way Michael Bolton is better than Kenny G. I don't want to hear or see either of them. That's my take on it.

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