Too Connected To Be A VP’s Wife?
Susan and Evan Bayh are a quintessential Power Couple. He’s a U.S. Senator, a former governor, the bearer of a respected Indiana name and on the short list for Barack Obama’s vice-presidential pick. She’s a lawyer for the health insurance behemoth Wellpoint, and serves on the boards of directors for Emmis Communications, E*Trade Financial and five others.
According to Bloomberg News, the parallel worlds of Susan and Evan Bayh are colliding. The story raises questions about whether, as a senator, Evan Bayh aided Wellpoint get part of a federal grant, and whether, as a board member, Susan helped Evan get his memoir published. And whether these conflicts could be used against a hypothetical Obama/Bayh ticket.
“When you’re vetting a vice president and his wife is on seven boards, that is a serious question of conflict of interest on a whole variety of issues,” said James Thurber, director of American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in Washington.
Evan Bayh has gone “above and beyond what is required under Senate ethics rules” to prevent possible conflicts, forbidding his staff to communicate with lobbyists for companies where his wife is a director, Bayh’s spokesman Eric Kleiman said.
“There is a wall preventing any and all lobbying contact,” and Susan Bayh isn’t a lobbyist, Kleiman said. “Spouses of public servants deserve the opportunity to pursue success in their chosen fields of endeavor.”
Yes, but would Ms. Bayh have the opportunity to pursue the same levels of success if she was married to Evan Jones, high school basketball coach? To be fair, Bloomberg’s Timothy Burger points out that two other prominent Democratic spouses have careers that raise similar questions.
Susan Bayh, 48, isn’t the first spouse to face political questions about corporate boards. Michelle Obama, who made $101,000 in 2006 as a director of TreeHouse Foods Inc., quit the suburban Chicago company’s board last year. TreeHouse’s biggest customer is Wal-Mart Inc., a target of criticism from labor unions. New York Senator Hillary Clinton was on Wal-Mart’s board when her husband, Bill Clinton, was governor of Arkansas.
Is anyone willing to make the argument that politicians’ close spousal ties to major corporations serve the public’s interest?
This entry was posted on August 20, 2008 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Ethics, John McCain, Lobbying, Republican Party with tags Evan Bayh, marriage, vice-presidency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
