Is there a more boring organization in America than the corporate-sponsored Bipartisan Policy Center, which is hosting big ticket events to both the Democratic and Republican conventions?
The Center was “created to develop substance based, bipartisan solutions to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing policy challenges through constructive argument and principled compromise.” Its board includes Norman Augustine, the retired CEO of Lockheed Martin, John Rowe, Chairman of Exelon Corporation, a few harmless environmentalists and a quartet of awful former senate majority leaders: Bob Dole, George Mitchell, Tom Daschle and Howard Baker. All of the former senators have worked as lobbyists or advisers to major lobbying firms.
In other words, the Bipartisan Policy Center is David Border’s wettest dream and a radical proponent of the status quo.
Where does the Bipartisan Policy Center get all of its fresh ideas? Well, on defense matters it turns to Admiral Gregory Johnson, who after retiring in 2004 founded Snow Ridge Associates, which “provides strategic advice and counsel.” Johnson also sits on the board of Integrian, a surveillance technology company, and is an outside director of CACI International.
The Center’s other major defense adviser is retired Air Force General Ronald Keys. While at the Air Force Keys was a major supporter of Lockheed’s boondoggle F-22 fighter program but he is best known for the 2007 incident in which “personnel under his command mistakenly and without authorization transported six live nuclear warheads from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base in the 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident. The event was the first recorded mishandling of nuclear weapons in the United States in more than 30 years.” Keys retired immediately afterwards.
Predictably, the Center is offering access to top political figures at both the Democratic and Republican conventions. Indeed, the Center is offering a package deal whereby donors who give $25,000 get VIP tickets, The deal also gives donors “event signage” and “exclusive branding opportunities” at one event in Denver (at the Vesta Dipping Grill on August 25) and one in Minneapolis (at Bellanote on September 2).
So this is what is meant by the two party system.
