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THIS WON'T HELP THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
By Mike Lillis
The Washington Independent
http://washingtonindependent.com/38298 /this-wont-help-the-armenian-genocide-bill
April 10 2009
Former wrestling coach and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will
lobby on behalf of Turkey as part of a $35,000 per month contract with
his K Street firm, Dickstein Shapiro, The Hill reported this afternoon.
The agreement is a subcontract between Hastert's firm and the Gephardt
Group, founded by Richard Gephardt, the ex-Missouri congressman who
was the Democratic House leader for several years. Gephardt and others
at DLA Piper replaced the Livingston Group, longtime lobbyists for
Turkey, as their Washington representatives last year.
For several years, Congress has been embroiled in debate over a
resolution to label as genocide the WWI-era killing of an estimated
1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Turkish soldiers. The House
Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution in 2007, but Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) never brought it to the floor out of concern
that the contentious measure, though non-binding in every way, would
alienate a strategic ally in the midst of a war with neighboring Iraq.
Hastert, who served as speaker longer than any Republican in
congressional history, just made passage of that resolution even
harder.
By Mike Lillis
The Washington Independent
http://washingtonindependent.com/38298 /this-wont-help-the-armenian-genocide-bill
April 10 2009
Former wrestling coach and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will
lobby on behalf of Turkey as part of a $35,000 per month contract with
his K Street firm, Dickstein Shapiro, The Hill reported this afternoon.
The agreement is a subcontract between Hastert's firm and the Gephardt
Group, founded by Richard Gephardt, the ex-Missouri congressman who
was the Democratic House leader for several years. Gephardt and others
at DLA Piper replaced the Livingston Group, longtime lobbyists for
Turkey, as their Washington representatives last year.
For several years, Congress has been embroiled in debate over a
resolution to label as genocide the WWI-era killing of an estimated
1.5 million Armenians at the hands of Turkish soldiers. The House
Foreign Affairs Committee passed the resolution in 2007, but Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) never brought it to the floor out of concern
that the contentious measure, though non-binding in every way, would
alienate a strategic ally in the midst of a war with neighboring Iraq.
Hastert, who served as speaker longer than any Republican in
congressional history, just made passage of that resolution even
harder.