Calabrese, Denis

calabrese bio pulled from sam adams site:

=---related: <a href="https://junkscience.com/2020/07/more-appalling-lnt-fraud-from-the-national-academy-of-sciences/">https://junkscience.com/2020/07/more-appalling-lnt-fraud-from-the-national-academy-of-sciences/</a><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px 56.4688px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1.2308;">More appalling LNT fraud from the National Academy of Sciences</h1></header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 56.4688px 24.5469px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In his new paper, Ed Calabrese reports that the ever-fraudulent National Academy of Sciences ignored data showing no genetic damage among the Japanese atomic bomb survivors because it would expose the limitations of extrapolating from animal data.[nyt 1956 headline]1st int'l cong on genetic copenhagen]]</div>

jacobin:

</div>

<div style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This comes from an alternate universe of radical theory, taking a parallax view on the persistent problem of money in politics. In this version, politicians — not wealthy donors — corrupt the system. It takes as axiomatic that all governments, even democratic ones, inevitably trend toward criminality and totalitarianism: a difficult presupposition to challenge in American political life considering the country was founded on it.</div>

</div>

<div style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The dissemination of that literature to a mass audience operates on a highly coded, conscious level that has been partitioned from the preconscious bigotries that it simultaneously excites. This has been a seemingly arduous fact for liberals to properly grasp, but it is no less true for it. People who have been led to believe that they claim a direct lineage to “The Party of Lincoln,” that Soviet Russia manipulated the Civil Rights Movement to undermine America during the Cold War, that the welfare reforms of LBJ’s Great Society legislation were actually just a cynical ploy to purchase blocs of underprivileged voters, and so on, are people who simply cannot be shamed by charges of racism. They earnestly do not consider themselves racists; they perceive the charge as an ad-hominem attack.</div>

</div>

</div>

<div style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">James O’Keefe also wanted to stake out a position as “talent scout,” and, according to individuals formerly affiliated with his competing venture, Eric O’Keefe supplied the initial salaries for James’s “citizen journalism” group, Project Veritas. Then serving as the president and CEO of the Tea Party astroturfer the Sam Adams Alliance, Eric installed a former employee, Izzy Santa, as Project Veritas’s first executive director.</div>

</div>

<div style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Brietbart passed away in March 2012, many wondered whether or not his organization could survive. His larger-than-life presence, his proficiency in cable-news optics, his Barnum-like ability to pull off promotional stunts (like hijacking Anthony Weiner’s press conference at the height of his sexting scandal): all of these qualities left many with the illusion that Andrew Breitbart was the animating force behind Breitbart News.</div>

</div>

<div style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In reality, Andrew Breitbart was more like an ad-agency creative director — adept at getting his client’s message maximal attention, but ultimately replaceable. He primarily functioned as a passionate conduit between the media contacts he had built up during his early years in Los Angeles and the luxuriously financed political operatives who were hoping to place their narratives in the mainstream news cycle.</div>

</div>

==

patriot gp ad on human events: by

Ms. Andersen is a news producer and reporter for HUMAN EVENTS. She previously interned for The Washington Examiner newspaper. She has appeared on MSNBC and Fox News. She has also been a guest on the Lars Larson radio show and the Jim Bohannon radio show. E-mail her at<ahref mailto:eandersen="mailto:eandersen" eaglepub.com="eaglepub.com" style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" xmlns:mailto="mailto">eandersen@eaglepub.com.  racism of planned parenthood</ahref>

POLITICS

CONSERVATIVE SPOTLIGHT: THE PATRIOT GROUP

By: eandersen

5/31/2007 03:01 AM

To hungry businessmen setting up a new company,  any client seems like a good client. But if you’re Denis Calabrese and the other six  founders of Austin, Texas’ The Patriot Group, a new conservative public affairs firm, you can’t wait to be choosy:  the success of the firm depends as much on principle as on financial success.  To The Patriot Group, success means pursuing liberty-minded values in partnership with client goals.

“Our prospective clients interview us but we also interview them because we want to espouse the merits of their position,” said founder Denis Calabrese.

Calabrese, a former Chief of Staff for Congressman Dick Armey, praised his group’s sincere dedication to working for causes consistent with their personal beliefs, saying that while some  firms “pay lip service” to that philosophy, they bend it and break it quite frequently [omg

Calabrese said being located outside of Washington gives them an advantage because that’s where the voters and donors are . Consultants for The Patriot Group have worked nationwide on a broad variety of public policy issues and campaigns. Most weeks, a consultant is in Washington for representation, but the heart of the group remains in Texas.

The underlying conservative principles of free enterprise, personal liberty, limited government and private property penetrate every business decision and this hard working, impassioned crew readily  turn away clients lacking their moral vision.

Ryan Gravatt, one of the firm’s seven founders, is a managing partner and the director of the online division, which helps we build web sites, launch email campaigns, and structure online grassroots activities. He spoke of a defining move for The Patriot Group at the start of their venture. They had to make a tough call:  either deviate from their principle-based work or turn down a potentially-lucrative contract with a Fortune 500 company. That particular company had requested anti-competitive tactics for their consultation and that didn’t cut it.

“At first you might think you are automatically limiting the scope of business you take in,” Gravatt said. “That’s true to some extent but we also only want to work on issues and clients who share the same values as we do.”

For these professionals, it’s not only about the money. They want to move America in the right direction by building on professionally perfected skills. A passionate vision rooted in confident experience forecasts a thriving future for The Patriot Group. “We thought we would be stronger as a group and just do more of what we were doing — but in a more effective way,” said Calabrese.

The key phrase, “winning on merits,” was born when the top notch consultants came together after individually reaching a critical mass of clients.  “If their back is against the wall, we try to show them…this is what the finish line looks like and you don’t have to sell out your principles to get there,” said Gravatt.

Besides working on purpose-driven issues and conservative political campaigns, the Patriot Group also creates their own crusades — to “insert a voice when there is a void.” Most recently, they began Power Across Texas, a group focused on energy issues. Treating it as any other consultation, they drafted a spokesman, set up editorial board visits, conducted interviews with reporters and visited Capital Hill. The result was a foot in the door of the debate.

“It is not something other public affairs firms are willing to do but we have talent within our walls to put together a brand, a lobbying strategy and a communications strategy,” said Gravatt. “Once we are able to recruit other parties, it becomes an entity that has legitimacy and is able to seek input.”

The Patriot Group partly relies on customary grassroots activism for many of their campaigns. Simple but effective methods like “tell-a-friend” campaigns, planting yard signs, block walking and traditional fundraising contribute to some of their fundamental success. Many clients seek media training so The Patriot Group provides instruction on letter writing, interview tactics, speech presentation and even crisis communications – when damage control is necessary.

“We have campaign playbook regardless of the size,” said Gravatt. “If you’re a mayoral candidate in small town or metro area, we’ve got a playbook that says do a, b, c, d and do it in this order.”

When the Governor’s Business Council in Texas came to the Patriot Group to brainstorm some much needed education reform, they helped create Excellence in the Classroom. This collaboration effort attempts to influence educational legislation and also reflects a greater vision of impacting public policy more significantly to move American forward in the right way.

Clients include Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the Genocide Intervention Network, the Coalition for Breathing Safety and Congressman Mike Conaway. With such a broad issues base, The Patriot Group easily locates patrons seeking principled counsel.

“We are hoping [this firm] starts to shape this business [public affairs] a little so clients start looking for consultants that are not just mercenaries but that actually believe in things,” said Calabrese. “We are partially training clients to understand that there is an option out there that will give them a better product and a longer term solution.”

The Patriot Group was named for an ideology that conveys foundational conservative values. A ‘patriot’ is defined as “a person who owes allegiance to that nation.” Gravatt said it was chosen to honor the country’s founding fathers and the original patriots seeking liberty and a government where voters have a voice and a growing democracy.

“People that signed up for this truly believe with their hearts and minds in what they are doing,” said Calabrese.

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Denis Calabrese is a communications consultant specializing in strategic planning, governmental affairs consulting, public relations and media relations. Denis has created, planned and managed multi-million dollar advocacy campaigns, and directed communications and public relations programs for extremely high profile business challenges and policy initiatives. He has also developed and managed the strategic, grassroots and public relations elements of sophisticated legislative and regulatory initiatives on the local, state and national levels.

Mr. Calabrese served as Washington D.C. Chief-of-Staff for the now retired Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Richard Armey. Mr. Calabrese has extensive experience in high-stakes, high-profile litigation, including asbestos, breast implants, diet drugs, employment discrimination, environmental, gasoline additives, lead paint, mold, and tobacco litigation. Mr. Calabrese also leads the strategic teams of a number of major public policy initiatives, including chief strategist for Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

Mr. Calabrese is a graduate of Rice University with majors in both Economics and Political Science, and taught a course on political communications at his alma mater.

ties to mackinac and pacific:

patriot group law lobbying?

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Denis Calabrese

Denis volunteers his time leading the strategic teams of a number of major public policy initiatives, including Texans for Lawsuit Reform. He also provides pro bono advice for pro-liberty organizations.

Denis is a principal in The Patriot Group and works from their Houston office. He is a communications consultant specializing in strategic planning, governmental affairs consulting, public relations, and media relations. Denis has created, planned, and managed multi-million dollar advocacy campaigns, and directed communications and public relations programs for high-profile business challenges and policy initiatives. He has also developed and managed the strategic, grassroots, and public relations elements of sophisticated legislative and regulatory initiatives on the local, state, and national levels. Denis has extensive experience in high-stakes litigation, including asbestos, breast implants, diet drugs, gasoline additives, lead paint, and tobacco litigation.

Denis served as Washington D.C. Chief-of-Staff for the now retired Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Richard Armey.

===

<h1>Crooks and Liars</h1>

<div class="byline">Tuesday June 5, 2012 04:00 pm</div>

<h2>James O'Keefe's Best Friends Network</h2>

<div class="byline">By karoli</div>

<div class="vfsFilesImageZoom"><a href="http://crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2012/06/project-veritas-small.png" class="thickbox">enlarge</a></div>

James O'Keefe has some high-rolling donors. I always wondered who was behind his bogus efforts to smear people with edited video, and now I have a better idea.

Lately, the right wing blogosphere has been eating each other alive while desperately trying to smear a couple of left wing bloggers for reasons I don't fully understand. That story is one that reads like a bad spy novel, and not worth trying to sort out. But James O'Keefe's ongoing difficulties with women, and especially women he hires? That's worth looking at more carefully.

Just to refresh memories, O'Keefe hatched a couple of "projects" that were intended to smear journalists. One was his "<a href="http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/amateur-hour-did-james-okeefe-target-media-">To Catch a Journalist</a>" media trap game, and the other was his incredibly stupid effort to <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/unbearable-lameness-james-okeefe-att">entrap CNN reporter</a> Abbie Boudreau by "seducing" her. The full plan, which is even worse than originally reported, is <a href="http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/2012/05/okeefe-sex-boat-plan-references-crazy.html">here</a>.

One thing that O'Keefe demonstrates over and over again is that he should be nowhere near women. He seems to be prone to <a href="http://nadianaffe.com/">sexual and sexist behavior</a> while around them. For these two plans, he recruited two different women. The first, who was supposed to be a part of the Boudreau scam, was Izzy (Isabel) Santa, who is the one who stopped the ridiculous scenario from continuing by tipping Boudreau off to what O'Keefe had planned for her. In October, 2010 Santa's attorney demanded that <a href="http://nadianaffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DOC002.pdf">Project Veritas pay off her contract</a>. Subsequent to that, a settlement agreement was drafted where Project Veritas agreed to pay Santa $20,000 as a final settlement and agreement between them. An <a href="http://nadianaffe.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Izzy-Santa-Settlement-Agreement.pdf">unsigned copy of that settlement agreement is posted online</a>, and I don't know whether it was the final version or not.

Here's what I do know. Part of that agreement was to hold harmless all parties affected. The list of affected parties is in the image above, and includes the following people: Francisco Gonzalez, Greg Walker, Colin Sharky and Maureen Wagner as members of the board, former and past. Consultants, donors and fundraisers to Project Veritas include Kate Doner, Eric O'Keefe, and Denis Calabrese. Who are these people who consulted, donated or fundraised for James O'Keefe?

Kate Doner:

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Doner_Fundraising">Sourcewatch</a>:

Doner Fundraising established by Kate Doner in 2003 in Austin Texas, is a fundraising and event services company "that partners with issue based non-profits, coalitions, corporations, and professional associations" and Republican candidates.

Although listed on the site of the State Policy Network and its current newsletter as its event planning consultant, there is no website corresponding to the domain. Her colleague, Elizabeth James, who lists her phone number as the same as Doner Fundraising, has an email address affiliated with Quorum Public Affairs, another Austin strategic public affairs company helping businesses to influence goverment and regulatory policies.

[...]

A biographical note states that "Doner received her Bachelor’s of Arts from Hillsdale College in Michigan with a double degree in Political Science and History. She is a native of Michigan, has lived in Texas since 1993."

She served as Director of Finance for the Texas Public Policy Foundation in 2003.

[...]

She managed the Austin fundraising for Texas Representative Joe Nixon in his race for the Texas Senate in 2005. Nixon of Houston chaired the Texas House Civil Practices Committee and was described by Texans for Lawsuit Reform in 2003, in The Advocate as "our one true friend" there and a courageous lawyer." In a news release, Nixon described Doner as "known throughout the state as an Austin fundraising powerhouse....Her client list reads like the who's who of Texas' best known Republican and conservative causes."

Doner's comments on tort reform appeared in the Winter 2006 issue of James Madison Institute.

Her former husband, John Doner operates John Doner & Associates. His Austin-based firm provides marketing services and consulting for political campaigns, political action committees, grassroots initiatives, and associations since 1989.

</blockquote>

Denis Calabrese

Denis Calabrese is one of the founding members of the lobbying firm <a href="http://www.patriot-group.com/node/10">Patriot Group</a>, a board member of the <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/head-st-louis-tea-party-vows-destroy-left">Sam Adams Alliance</a>, and affiliated with American Majority. He was also <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/2007/05/31/conservative-spotlight-the-patriot-group/">Dick Armey's Chief of Staff</a>. That would be former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who is now Chairman of Freedomworks.

Calabrese is also <a href="http://arnoldfoundation.org/our-team#calabrese">President of the Arnold Foundation</a>, a non-profit organization founded by <a href="http://littlesis.org/org/49748/Arnold_Family_Foundation">billionaire Enron trader and hedge fund manager</a> John Arnold and his wife Laura. The Arnold Foundation is dedicated to funding education deforms around the country.

Eric O'Keefe

Eric O'Keefe is <a href="http://www.eric-okeefe.com/">Chairman and CEO of the Sam Adams Alliance</a> and sits on the board of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Club_for_Growth_Wisconsin">Wisconsin Club for Growth</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_for_Humane_Studies">Institute for Humane Studies</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Competitive_Politics">Center for Competitive Politics</a>, and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Health_Care_Compact">Health Care Compact</a>. All of these are Koch-related and/or funded entities. O'Keefe also is connected to <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/leo-linbeck-jr/about/">Joe Ricketts and Houston building billionaire Leo Linbeck III</a>.

This is how pissant liars like O'Keefe get any traction at all. They get some funding from billionaires whose single focus is on taking over the whole damn country, work with a compliant corporate media to amplify without any actual verification what O'Keefe does, and so he gets to keep doing it over and over and over.

I want to extend a particular thanks to <a href="http://nadianaffe.com/part-ii-the-barn-incident/">Nadia Naffe for her contributions to my research</a> for this post. She is in the process of being slandered viciously by the right wing blogosphere and twitterati because she dared to call James O'Keefe out for his effort to smear Professor Charles Seife and it appears, Jay Rosen. <a href="http://nadianaffe.com/a-precursor-to-part-iii-my-response-to-james-okeefes-lawsuit/">She writes</a>:

Patrick Frey [Patterico] may have believed that posting my Social Security Number and medical records online to his blog, in retaliation, would intimidate and stop me from telling the truth about O’keefe, chill my First Amendment rights and dissuade me from coming forward to report a crime committed in his jurisdiction. Though, what he has accomplished is precisely the opposite.

These two civil servants, both deputy district attorney’s in Los Angles County, in the past were able to bully and harass private individuals, with impunity. But their patent on intimidation and retribution expired when they came to me. The Frey’s are the poster children for the type of rampant corruption Carmen Trutanich, Alan Jackson and Danette Myers have each spoken out against.

</blockquote>

This is also what they do. When they're afraid of being exposed, they just chew up and try to destroy any person who might dare to tell the truth about them. Whatever Nadia Naffe's story is, she posted actual filings and pleadings online which confirm the story she's telling about James O'Keefe, and it's not pretty.

Courage, Nadia.

</div>

===

human events bs

<h1 class="title">Conservative Spotlight: The Patriot Group</h1>

By: <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/author/ericka-andersen/">eandersen</a>

5/31/2007 03:01 AM

</div>

</div>

To hungry businessmen setting up a new company,  any client seems like a good client. But if you’re Denis Calabrese and the other six  founders of Austin, Texas’ The Patriot Group, a new conservative public affairs firm, you can’t wait to be choosy:  the success of the firm depends as much on principle as on financial success.  To The Patriot Group, success means pursuing liberty-minded values in partnership with client goals.

“Our prospective clients interview us but we also interview them because we want to espouse the merits of their position,” said founder Denis Calabrese.

Calabrese, a former Chief of Staff for Congressman Dick Armey, praised his group’s sincere dedication to working for causes consistent with their personal beliefs, saying that while some  firms “pay lip service” to that philosophy, they bend it and break it quite frequently.

The underlying conservative principles of free enterprise, personal liberty, limited government and private property penetrate every business decision and this hard working, impassioned crew readily  turn away clients lacking their moral vision.

Ryan Gravatt, one of the firm’s seven founders, is a managing partner and the director of the online division, which helps we build web sites, launch email campaigns, and structure online grassroots activities. He spoke of a defining move for The Patriot Group at the start of their venture. They had to make a tough call:  either deviate from their principle-based work or turn down a potentially-lucrative contract with a Fortune 500 company. That particular company had requested anti-competitive tactics for their consultation and that didn’t cut it.

The key phrase, “winning on merits,” was born when the top notch consultants came together after individually reaching a critical mass of clients.  “If their back is against the wall, we try to show them…this is what the finish line looks like and you don’t have to sell out your principles to get there,” said Gravatt.

Besides working on purpose-driven issues and conservative political campaigns, the Patriot Group also creates their own crusades — to “insert a voice when there is a void.” Most recently, they began Power Across Texas, a group focused on energy issues. Treating it as any other consultation, they drafted a spokesman, set up editorial board visits, conducted interviews with reporters and visited Capital Hill. The result was a foot in the door of the debate.

“It is not something other public affairs firms are willing to do but we have talent within our walls to put together a brand, a lobbying strategy and a communications strategy,” said Gravatt. “Once we are able to recruit other parties, it becomes an entity that has legitimacy and is able to seek input.”

The Patriot Group partly relies on customary grassroots activism for many of their campaigns. Simple but effective methods like “tell-a-friend” campaigns, planting yard signs, block walking and traditional fundraising contribute to some of their fundamental success. Many clients seek media training so The Patriot Group provides instruction on letter writing, interview tactics, speech presentation and even crisis communications – when damage control is necessary.

Clients include Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the Genocide Intervention Network, the Coalition for Breathing Safety and Congressman Mike Conaway. With such a broad issues base, The Patriot Group easily locates patrons seeking principled counsel.

“We are hoping [this firm] starts to shape this business [public affairs] a little so clients start looking for consultants that are not just mercenaries but that actually believe in things,” said Calabrese. “We are partially training clients to understand that there is an option out there that will give them a better product and a longer term solution.”

“People that signed up for this truly believe with their hearts and minds in what they are doing,” said Calabrese.

bs

<h3 style=" font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Denis Calabrese, The Patriot Group</h3>

Denis Calabrese is a communications professional providing public policy, governmental affairs, public relations, and media relations services to a wide variety of clients. He is one of the nation's foremost policy/issue advocacy experts. In addition, senior elected officials at the federal, state and local levels have utilized Mr. Calabrese's services, as have some of the largest and most high-profile corporations in the world, numerous prominent national law firms, medium and small businesses, non-profit foundations, professional associations, professional sports franchises, and many others. A representative list of past or current corporate clients include: Amana, AT&T, BP, Chevron Companies, Continental Airlines, Exxon Company, Google, KB Homes, McKinsey & Company, Methodist Hospital System, NL Industries, Shell, Sherwin Williams, Texas Instruments, and Union Carbide Corp.

Mr. Calabrese has planned and managed multi-million dollar national advertising campaigns, and directed national and international communications programs for extremely high profile business transactions, policy initiatives, and high-stakes litigation. He has also developed and run the strategic, grassroots and public relations elements of sophisticated legislative and regulatory initiatives on the local, state and national levels. Mr. Calabrese's Washington DC experience includes having served as the first Chief-of-Staff for the past Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mr. Calabrese also has extensive experience leading communications teams for high-stakes, high-profile litigation, including asbestos litigation, breast implant litigation, diet drug litigation, employment discrimination litigation, environmental contamination litigation, gulf war syndrome litigation, lead paint litigation, mold litigation, and tobacco litigation.

As a policy expert and media spokesperson, Mr. Calabrese has appeared on, or in, virtually every major television, radio and print media outlet including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Hannity and Colmes, and many others.

Mr. Calabrese is a graduate of Rice University in Economics and Political Science, and taught a course on political communications at his alma mater. He is also an entrepreneur with multiple successful business startups to his credit, including founding and still operating the largest running/walking fitness program in the world, USA FIT.

===

biggest yr 2005

Shook, Hardy & Bacon - $120,000

BITL - $40,000

$832,000

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2005

BITL $40,000 Coalition for Breathing Safety

Newton, Norman

Parker, Richard

Rice, Chuck JR

Bracewell & Giuliani $72,000 Coalition for Breathing Safety Krenik, EdwardRevolving Door Profile

Mabry, Milam DRevolving Door Profile

Segal, Scott HRevolving Door Profile

Warren, Jill

Zive, JoshuaRevolving Door Profile

Shook, Hardy & Bacon $120,000 Coalition for Breathing Safety Behrens, Mark A

Goldberg, Philip SRevolving Door Profile

Schwartz, Victor ERevolving Door Profile

Silverman, Cary

Willkie, Farr & Gallagher $600,000 Coalition for Breathing Safety Elliott, E DonaldRevolving Door Profile

McTaggart, Timothy R

Smith, Russell LRevolving Door Profile

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2006

Alpine Group - $120,000

Tiner, Michael E - $40,000

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<table class="datadisplay" id="client_bills" style=" border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; width: 630px; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); line-height: 24px; background: rgb(224, 230, 236);"><tbody><tr><td nowrap="" align="left" style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr2357-109" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">H.R.2357</a></td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">109</td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Respirator Access Assurance Act of 2005</td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=hr2357-109&id=F18595&year=2006" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">4</a></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td nowrap="" align="left" style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s1406-109" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">S.1406</a></td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">109</td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Respirator Access Assurance Act of 2005</td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=s1406-109&id=F18595&year=2006" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">3</a></td></tr><tr><td nowrap="" align="left" style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=s1873-109" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">S.1873</a></td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;">109</td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;">Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005</td><td class="center" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: center; vertical-align: top;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/specissue.php?bid=s1873-109&id=F18595&year=2006" style=" color: rgb(62, 114, 181); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">1</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

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http://www.texasobserver.org/2512-andrew-wheat-patriots-for-hire/

<h1 class="title" itemprop="name" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 34px; color: rgb(192, 0, 0);">Patriots for Hire</h1>

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<address class="authorname" style=" line-height: 22px; color: rgb(70, 70, 70);">by <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/author/andrew-wheat/" title="Posts by Andrew Wheat" class="url fn" rel="author" style=" outline: none; color: rgb(86, 136, 185);">Andrew Wheat</a> Published on <time pubdate="pubdate" datetime="2007-06-01T00:00:00+00:00" itemprop="dateCreated">Friday, June 1, 2007, at 12:00 CST</time></address>

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Last fall a group of well-connected Republicans formed a new lobby and consulting firm in Austin. The Patriot Group’s partners boast strong ties to Tom DeLay’s indicted Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) and to Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) PAC-Texas’ most notorious and largest PACs, respectively. TLR worked closely with TRMPAC to help elect a Republican House majority in 2002. That new majority helped enact TLR’s agenda by capping medical malpractice damages and making it harder for consumers to file lawsuits against builders of lemon houses. Not long ago, operatives with these connections might have written their own tickets. Yet so far this year the Patriots have reported just nine lobby contracts worth up to $710,000-a seemingly anemic performance for such players.

One explanation is poor timing. The Patriots opened last October, shortly before voters disgruntled by the ruling party’s war and corruption took away some of the GOP’s seats in Congress and the Texas Legislature. When the Patriot Group announced its launch, executive assistant Haley Cornyn, daughter of U.S. Senator John Cornyn, told the Austin Business Journal that the Patriots soon expected to open a “very, very large D.C. shop.” After the midterm elections a few weeks later, however, special interests in Washington rushed to hire another breed of lobbyists: those peddling stroke with the new Democratic majority. The new year has not improved this business climate. As the case against DeLay crawls along in Texas, a Democrat represents DeLay’s old district. Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, TRMPAC’s federal cousin, went out of business. And Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick-the leading beneficiary of DeLay’s meddling in Texas’s 2002 elections-confronts another mutiny within his own ranks. Such times will test even pedigreed Patriots.

The Patriot with the closest ties to TRMPAC is Kevin Brannon, a longtime aide to former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm. TRMPAC hired Brannon in 2001 to identify which candidates it should back in its quest for a Republican House majority. As part of this vetting, Brannon often asked candidates if they would support Midland Republican Rep. Tom Craddick to be the new Speaker. TRMPAC then paid Brannon to work directly on some of these campaigns. Today two of Brannon’s three lobby clients at the Patriot Group boast TRMPAC ties. Client AT&T contributed $20,000 in corporate funds to TRMPAC. Brannon also lobbies for the Association of Electric Companies. One of its members, Reliant Energy, contributed another $25,000 to DeLay’s now-indicted PAC.

The single largest contributor to both TRMPAC and TLR is Houston homebuilder Bob Perry. This wealthy recluse’s public spokesman, Anthony Holm, brought Bob Perry’s business with him when he joined the Patriots. Holm declined to comment on the Patriot Group’s business for this column. Another top underwriter of both TRMPAC and TLR, San Antonio hospital-bed magnate James Leininger, also boasts Patriot ties. Patriot general counsel Marc Levin runs the Center for Effective Justice at Leininger’s conservative think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Former Phil Gramm aide Matt Welch ran Texas’ largest PAC at TLR before joining the Patriots. In 2003 a grand jury in the TRMPAC case subpoenaed Welch to testify on the extent to which TLR and TRMPAC coordinated political activities the year before. With the Patriots Welch lobbies for TLR as well as Maritime Jobs for Texas, a new tort reform group pushing legislation on behalf of dredging companies and other shipping interests. If Gov. Rick Perry signs this legislation (HB 1602), as expected, injured dredging workers will be required to sue their employer in the county where the injury occurred or where their employer’s headquarters are based. Currently injured dredging workers can file such cases in their home counties. As a result, Maritime Jobs and TLR argue that more than 100 such cases have been filed in recent years in South Texas, where Hispanic judges and juries are considered sympathetic to such claims. For their part, dredging companies have recruited heavily from this impoverished Hispanic region in their search for relatively low-cost labor to do dangerous dredging work.

HB 1602 could be called the Buz-bee Bill, after Houston-area lawyer Anthony Buzbee. Last year this attorney for numerous injured dredgers made a presentation to a conference of maritime defense attorneys-including one who secretly recorded his remarks. In his talk Buzbee extolled the Rio Grande Valley’s Starr County as a plaintiff’s dream. “That venue probably adds about 75 percent to the value of the case,” Buzbee said. “You’ve got an injured Hispanic client, you’ve got a completely Hispanic jury, and you’ve got an Hispanic judge.” Patriot Group founder Denis Calabrese, a longtime spokesman for TLR, told The Wall Street Journal in February that his client widely circulated Buzbee’s remarks as a persuasive argument for dredging-lawsuit restrictions.

Patriot Jill Warren previously lobbied for Rudy Giuliani’s Bracewell & Giuliani, where 11 clients paid her up to $630,000 last year, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. One of Warren’s Bracewell clients, private prison giant Cornell Companies, gave $10,000 in corporate funds to TRMPAC. It was TRMPAC’s expenditure of such taboo corporate funds that made prison a potentially personal matter for Tom DeLay. Warren, who made an unsuccessful run for the Texas House in 2000, still represents one old Bracewell client, ORYXE Energy. Texas regulators have certified ORYXE fuel additives for use in smoggy areas where low-emission diesel has been mandated.

Warren and two other Patriots lobby for the Genocide Intervention Network’s Sudan Divestment Task Force. The Texas Legislature recently sent Gov. Perry legislation (SB 247) that would require state pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Sudan-where up to 400,000 people have been killed in state-sponsored ethnic violence. Unlike the liberal-led South Africa divestment campaigns of 25 years ago, the Sudan divestment movement has garnered support from liberals and conservatives alike.

The Patriot Group’s Web site lists another client that has yet to report any Texas lobby contracts. The Coalition for Breathing Safety represents respiratory-mask manufacturers that want protection from lawsuits if their products fail to protect users from hazardous particles. Playing the fear card, the group warns that silica lawsuits may leave America without adequate respirators in the event of a flu pandemic. The coalition hired Bracewell & Giuliani to lobby Congress shortly after Rudy Giuliani joined the firm in 2005. This prompted an International Association of Fire Fighters spokesman to tell Bloomberg News recently that the former 9/11 mayor was more concerned with dollars than “the lives of first responders.” Giuliani said fire fighters resent him for opposing their demands for pay raises when he was mayor of New York City.

The Patriot Group’s all-Republican political clients include Congressman Mike Conaway (Midland), Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, and state Reps. Brandon Creighton (Conroe), Rob Eissler (the Woodlands), Dan Flynn (Van), Dan Gattis (Georgetown), Brian McCall (Plano), and Tan Parker (Flower Mound). Other Patriot clients that do not appear in the group’s lobby registrations include Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (a Marc Levin related tax-revolt group), the Governor’s Business Council (along with its Texans for Excellence in the Classroom) and Power Across Texas, an energy think tank formed by ex-Texas Public Utility Commission chair Rebecca Klein.

Given its heavyweight connections,

it is surprising that the Patriot Group has kept a low profile and has not grabbed a larger slice of Texas lobby contracts. The Patriots collectively report that nine lobby clients are paying them up to $710,000 this session, or little more than Jill Warren alone reported when she was at Bracewell & Giuliani. Is even Texas becoming a tough business climate for TRMPAC and TLR operatives? Or are these for-hire Patriots motivated by something other than money?

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