Word: businessmen
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Last November the government awarded the franchise for a fifth channel to a group headed by Berlusconi and two French businessmen with ties to President Mitterrand. Opposition leaders charged that the new channel would have a pro- Socialist bias and that it was being rushed on the air to beat the March 16 legislative elections, which the Socialists are in danger of losing. Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, a leading Mitterrand foe, even tried to thwart the channel's start-up by closing access to the top of the Eiffel Tower, where technicians were about to install an antenna. Government officials...
...Marcos cronies, reduce regressive fuel and electricity taxes, and do away with seed and fertilizer levies that hamper agricultural diversification. She has said she will try to negotiate better repayment terms for the foreign debt in the hope that export earnings will be freed to stimulate growth. Not surprisingly, businessmen were among her most ardent backers, and Aquino's economic policies are certain to retain a pro-private enterprise tilt...
Such victories inspire other loophole-seeking businessmen to hire guides through the congressional maze, at any price. There is no shortage of hungry lobbyists ready to relieve them of their money. "You get hustlers in Washington who get hooked up with hustlers outside of Washington, and the money moves very quickly," says Peter Teeley, former press aide to Vice President George Bush and now a Washington p.r. man. "Some people are getting ripped off." Says Senator Pryor: "Businessmen are very, very naive. It's amazing what they pay these lobbyists. The businessmen panic. They really don't understand Washington...
...most successful lobbyists in town, Bob Gray naturally has his detractors, and they accuse him of overselling businessmen on his ability to solve all their Washington problems with a few phone calls. "Gray is so overrated it's unbelievable," says one U.S. Senator. "He makes a big splash at parties, but his clients aren't getting a lot for their money." Gray insists that he never promises more than he can deliver. But his own clients sometimes grumble that, for a fat fee, they get little more than a handshake from a Cabinet member at a cocktail party...
...Washington is often conducted by night, a whole cottage industry has grown up around the party-giving business. Michael Deaver's wife Carolyn is one of half a dozen Washington hostesses who can be hired to set up power parties, which bring top Government officials together with private businessmen. "Facilitator" Canzeri puts on charitable events to burnish corporate images, like a celebrity tennis tournament that drew scores of Washington lobbyists and netted $450,000 for Nancy Reagan's antidrug campaign. Lobbyists, not surprisingly, work hard not just at re-electing Congressmen but also at befriending them. Congressman Tony Coelho...