Robert Livingston, the former Republican chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a paid lobbyist for Turkey since 2000, made some interesting statements last week. He told the Turkish media that Sen. Kerry, if elected president, would probably keep his promises on recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Livingston was in effect telling the Turks that he would have to charge them much more for his lobbying efforts, as it would be more difficult under the Kerry administration to block the Genocide resolution. In a lengthy article published on Sept. 29, 2004, reporter Kate Ackley disclosed in "Influnce.biz" that The Livingston Group's lucrative client, Turkey, paid the firm $1.4 million just for the first half of this year. The Turkish fees constituted 25% of the firm's annual revenues. The report revealed some of The Livingston Group's far-reaching and influential network of contacts in the White House (Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to Pres. Bush; James Marrs, an aide to Vice President Dick Cheney; Matt Bryza, the National Security Council's director of European and Eurasian affairs; and Daniel Keniry, a member of Pres. Bush's legislative affairs team); in the Congress (House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, and his aide Christopher Walker; House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas, and his senior national security policy advisor Brett Shogren; Cong. Robert Wexler, D-Fla; Cong. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky, and his aide Jeff Miles; Cong. Richard Baker, R-La; Mark Murray, minority staff assistant for the House Appropriations Committee; Vincent Morelli, majority staff director for the House International Relations Subcommittee on Europe; Johnnie Kaberlie and Ali Amirhooshmand, policy aides to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; and Rachael Leman, deputy policy director on the House Rules Committee); in the Defense Dept. (Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; and Lisa Heald, the country director for Turkey in the office of the Secretary of Defense); and in the State Dept. (Douglas Hengel, an aide in the office of Southeastern European Affairs). The article disclosed that Livingston and his group spent a lot of time and effort to counter Cong. Schiff's amendment on forbidding Turkey to use U.S. foreign aid money to lobby the Congress against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. According to the article, on March 18, Livingston, "exchanged e-mails on Turkish-Armenian issues with James Marrs of Vice President Dick Cheney's office." In July, Livingston and his team of lobbyists held a series of meetings with White House officials and House leaders to counter the Schiff amendment. If Kerry were to be elected president, The Livingston Group would need to work much harder and charge the Turks millions of more dollars for their lobbying efforts.

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