Remember the time that woman said Ann Romney had never worked a day in her life because she was a stay-at-home mom?
Remember how silly that seemed considering she has five children, served as her husband’s liaison to faith-based initiatives when he was governor of Massachusetts, was involved in a number of children’s charities and has had multiple sclerosis since at least 1998?
And remember the woman a few weeks ago who went after former Clinton appointee and liberal lawyer Jamie Gorelick for having the temerity to represent Ivanka Trump?
It’s the same woman. And not only is it the same woman, but that woman also has the nerve to ask the Trump administration for special favors.
Her name is Hilary Rosen, and she is a left-wing extremist, full-fledged anti-Trumper, CNN analyst (at the risk of being redundant) and chief lobbyist for SKDKnickerbocker, a far-left PR firm populated by former Obama and Clinton administration people.
Curiously, her firm brags about both its prowess in the world of corporate mergers and acquisitions and its ability to push liberal candidates to put the people ahead of corporate interests.
And now, with the head-spinning dissonance that characterizes much of the left in 2017, she and her allies in the far-left lobbying world want to convince the Trump administration to put corporate interests ahead of the people.
The three largest U.S. airlines, represented by a virulent anti-Trumper, want the Trump administration to reopen so-called Open Skies agreements with the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The U.S. has 120 of these agreements, which grant commercial air carriers permission to land and operate in each others’ countries.
The airlines have hired Rosen to convince Trump that Emirates Air Lines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have an unfair advantage because they receive government subsidies. Sir Tim Clark, who runs Emirates, said the airline received a subsidy to start but has repaid it and operates exclusively on its own funds.
The big three American carriers want the Trump administration to cut off those agreements because they threaten security and Americans’ jobs. What they threaten is the ability of the American airlines to overcome their slow response to the exploding market for travel to the Middle East. The interests of Delta, American and United may coincide with those of the American people, but it does not appear in this case as if they do.
In another curious development, Rosen is known to make the other argument when it suits her best. On the rather ephemeral matter of whether the merger of Fanduel and DraftKings, two fantasy sports gambling sites, should go forward, she says antitrust is king and consumer choice is critical.
But in February, there they were, Rosen and her SKDKnickerbocker teammate and fellow radical leftist and virulent anti-Trumper Jill Zuckman meeting with the president to make the case for protectionism for America’s airlines.
And there was Zuckman, who a month earlier had touted a “money trail” between the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Justice Department, tweeting afterwards that her meeting with the president had gone well.
“Gratified by his concern @ 300,000 US workers hurt by subsidized Gulf carriers. #ThankYou,” she tweeted of her meeting with the president.
Here’s a tip, Mr. President. These people are not gratified by anything you do. They think you are disgusting. They are quite public about the fact they oppose anything you are for. They are not your friends. They are not looking out for your best interests. They do not seek what is best for America. Even as they push for this piece of corporate cronyism, they oppose your efforts at health care reform and tax reform and defense policy reform and all the rest.
What they want is what they always want – to keep the bucks rolling in from their 1 percenter clients. If that means we pay more to fly to the Middle East or do so on old aircraft with bad service, that’s not Hilary Rosen’s problem or Jill Zuckman’s or anyone else’s in the radical leftist lobbysphere.
Get them out of your office. Deal with the CEOs of the companies … they are more likely to understand the importance of finding real common ground and more realistic about what to expect. And they don’t devote their days and nights to criticizing every move you make or feathering the beds of their 1 percent clients at the expense of whoever happens to get in the way.