St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO
Oct 28 2007
Former Rep. Gephardt redefines himself
BY DEIRDRE SHESGREEN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WASHINGTON — For years, Rep. Dick Gephardt campaigned across the
country in the hopes of one day wielding the House Speaker’s gavel —
to no avail.
When Democrats finally took control of Congress last year, Gephardt
was far from the political spotlight. But he’s still enjoying the
fruits of his party’s success.
The former House Democratic leader and two-time presidential
contender is in demand as a lobbyist and political wise-man, playing
a quiet but key role in some of the hottest issues of the day.
And the once-debt laden congressman is finally making big bucks,
allowing him to honor a pledge to his wife.
”I promised Jane she’d never be cold again,” Gephardt said, noting
the many frigid days she’d endured going door-to-door with him in
Missouri, Iowa, and elsewhere.
They built a new house in Sonoma, Calif. They have a condo in Naples,
Fla. And even as he crisscrosses the globe with his new ventures, ”I
get my weekends off for the first time in 30 years,” Gephardt said.
The 66-year-old former St. Louisan is busy in a wide range of areas.
He’s in the thick of the Democratic presidential primary. He’s been
involved in round-the-clock labor negotiations. And he’s lobbying on
controversial legislation in the House.
”I never really thought of it as retiring — in many ways, I’m
involved in the same issues I used to be involved in,” he said in an
interview from St. Louis, where he was attending a Centene Corp.,
board meeting, one of about a half-dozen posts he’s juggling.
Gephardt’s most recent endeavor has put him at the center of an
international squabble and congressional flap: a resolution that
would label as genocide the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by the
Ottoman Turks, a measure he once favored.
Now, Gephardt is lobbying against the resolution on behalf of the
Turkish government, which says the measure would damage U.S.-Turkey
relations.
Turkey is paying $100,000 a month for lobbying services to DLA Piper,
the law firm where Gephardt works in Washington as senior counsel.
He’s working on the issue with former Rep. Robert Livingston, R-La.;
the two helped unravel support for the resolution, which now faces an
uncertain fate.
”He’s been very active, talking to everyone,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo,
D-Calif., a sponsor of the genocide measure.
Gephardt said his views of the resolution and its impact on U.S.
relations with Turkey changed profoundly after Sept. 11, 2001. Turkey
has become a critical ally, he said, and “we’ve got to have models
out there of Muslim governments that are moderate and successful.”
He said he’s been pressing hard to come up with an alternative that
works toward some kind of reconciliation process to “get all the
facts on the table and let the chips fall where they may.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was one of the first people
Gephardt lobbied. He brought the Turkish ambassador into her office
for a meeting this spring. He has also talked to House Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., who sits on
the foreign relations panel that considered the resolution earlier
this month.
Carnahan and some other lawmakers said Gephardt did not influence
their views. Carnahan voted against the resolution in committee; he
said his position was shaped by a trip he took to Turkey last summer
where he saw “first-hand what a strong ally Turkey had been to us in
a rough neighborhood.”
Still, Gephardt’s switch on the issue has raised some eyebrows among
Democrats. ”It represents a sea change in terms of position, but
money does that,” Eshoo said.
In addition to his work for DLA Piper, Gephardt opened up a lobby
firm earlier this year with his son, daughter and others. The
Gephardt Group has registered to lobby for three clients, including
the St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp., the world’s largest private
sector coal company.
Frederick Palmer, the company’s senior vice president for government
relations, said Peabody approached Gephardt after the 2006 elections,
which swept Democrats into power in Congress. He is helping the firm
work on funding for clean-coal technologies and the ”avoidance of
carbon caps” to cut greenhouse gas emissions, lobby reports say.
When in the House, Gephardt expressed concerns about the 1997 Kyoto
treaty on global warming but eventually came out in support of it.
His new lobbying role could put him at odds with Democrats in
Congress who are spearheading an effort to reduce greenhouse gases.
Palmer said the company hired Gephardt because of his long support
for the coal industry and his expertise on energy issues. But he
conceded that Gephardt brings a lot more than that.
”It’s a value to Peabody to have Dick Gephardt . . . because of his
contacts and because of who he is,” said Palmer. “I can meet with a
lot of people, but I’m Fred Palmer. He’s Dick Gephardt.”
The lobbying work is a just a slice of Gephardt’s post-congressional
career. He’s helped settle a strike by workers for Boeing and is
looking to get involved in with the United Auto Workers and Chrysler
if their recently negotiated contract falls apart.
He’s a consultant for the investment giant Goldman Sachs. He serves
on several corporate boards, including Centene, and played a
peripheral role in the negotiations that resulted in the company’s
plans to build a headquarters in downtown St. Louis. He also returns
to St. Louis once a month or so to attend to business at the public
service institute he launched at Washington University.
And Gephardt is in the mix of the Democratic presidential primary,
planning to head to Iowa in December to campaign for Sen. Hillary
Clinton, D-N.Y.
”He still spends most of his time on airplanes,” said Erik Smith, a
long-time aide to Gephardt. “The difference is when he was a
legislator, he was proposing ideas and working to build some
consensus around them. Now what he’s finding is he can actually roll
up his sleeves and do them.”
For years, Gephardt the pro-union lawmaker talked about finding ways
to give workers equity in the companies that employ them. In 2005,
Gephardt the labor-relations advisor helped broker a deal that did
just that.
The opportunity came when Boeing announced it would have to shutter a
key facility in Wichita, Kan. A Canadian private equity firm, Onex
Corp., was interested in buying the plant, but officials wanted major
concessions from the union. Gephardt helped to hammer out a
ground-breaking deal in which the union agreed to a 10 percent pay
cut, among other concessions, in exchange for equity in the company,
now called Spirit AeroSystems. When the firm went public, each
machinist got $80,000 to $100,000 in stock.
”His style of leadership tends to get people talking to one another
and figuring out how to work together rather than fight,” said R.
Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Gephardt was, almost from the start, a national politician. But he
rarely missed a chance to talk about his St. Louis roots and he came
back regularly — to knock on doors in his south St. Louis
neighborhood, to go to a Cardinals or Rams game, or to huddle over
strategy with his alter ego and political confidant, Joyce Aboussie.
Gephardt’s new life still brings him back to St. Louis, whether for
work, a baseball game, or to check on an elderly family friend.
When Gephardt ran into some of his former Missouri colleagues,
including Carnahan and Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-Mo., on an
airplane recently, he jokingly called them ”working stiffs” and
bragged about how nice it was to only work five days a week.
It was one hint at the pace of Gephardt’s new life. It’s still hectic
but not nearly as grueling.
He has made few public speeches. He’s scarcely seen on TV or quoted
in news articles. And while he’s still in Washington a couple of days
a week, he and Jane spend more time in California or Florida than
they do in the nation’s capital.
Indeed, Gephardt said he had no itch to be back in the political
fight.
”I did it hard for 28 years, and that’s enough,” he said. “I
haven’t had one instant of regret or wishing that I was there. I am
absolutely thrilled to be doing what I’m doing. I just love it.”