Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Slick Rick: Show Him The Money

"If Rick Perry is for something, and there's a lot of money involved, it's a cinch that one (or more) of Perry's pals is involved up to his neck," writes Paul Burka on his Texas Monthly blog. True dat. As he goes on to quote from the Houston Chronicle:

Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a friend of Perry's, is handling discussions for the proposed lottery sale, a spokesman for Gramm's company acknowledged.

Gramm is vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank, which has been advising the governor on the proposed privatization of the state lottery. Gramm was a federally registered lobbyist for UBS last year.

Ray Sullivan, a lobbyist registered with the investment firm in Texas, worked as a spokesman for Perry several years ago. Sullivan is now in business with Michael Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff.

Toomey said he does not represent clients with lottery-related interests, and he added that Sullivan does not work on lottery-related issues for UBS.

And it just gets better. Seems that Perry's own son is working for UBS too, the DMN reports. "You have to give Perry credit," Burka writes. "Nothing embarrasses him."

No comments: