Friday, October 04, 2013

Is Harper Conspiring with Congressional Republicans to Undermine Obama

Yes it sounds far fetched but American billionaire, Tom Steyer, is questioning whether Steve Harper played a role in the shutdown of the U.S. government.

“Have your government, your government’s lobbyist and/or agents representing TransCanada communicated with House Republicans about including Keystone in the original litany of demands put to President Obama?” Steyer asks in the letter to Harper sent Friday.
Steyer says in the dispatch that TransCanada is launching a new advertising campaign aimed at stakeholders in Washington, D.C.
“News of this advertising campaign comes in the context of House Republicans having closed down the U.S. government as well as threatening to oppose the extension of the country’s debt limit unless certain demands were met,” Steyer writes.
“Included in the original list of House Republican demands was that the Obama administration grant approval for the building of the Keystone XL pipeline.”
The combination of the advertising campaign and Harper’s comments last week “raises the question of whether your office is working hand-in-hand with TransCanada to try to exploit the current situation in Washington, D.C., at the expense of the American people,” Steyer wrote.



8 comments:

LeDaro said...

Mound, I doubt Harper himself has that kind of clout. It is the corporations behind Keystone XL who might have done it.

I think Repugs are screwed with this shutdown as majority of Americans blame the Congress and not the President - especially Repugs.

The Mound of Sound said...

I don't know, LD. Steyer is a pretty powerful guy with loads of influence. Would Harper collaborate with congressional repugs if it stood to improve the chances of KXL?

LeDaro said...

Mound, no doubt that Harper is working with TransCanada operatives.

"raises the question of whether your office is working hand-in-hand with TransCanada to try to exploit the current situation in Washington, D.C., at the expense of the American people,” as this statement indicates.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Harper is working *with* oil corporations, he is, rather, working *for* oil corporations.

After all, the oil corporation lawyers probably wrote most of the latest omnibus bills.

It will be interesting to see on which corporation boards Harper lands after he exits stage left.

LeDaro said...

Anon, Harper will do well for himself.

Anonymous said...

I think it was back in 2008 that Harper almost cost the election for Obama.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_presidential_primary_campaign,_2008#NAFTA_controversy

So ... don't doubt for a second that our little Canadian version of Napoleon/Macciavelli didn't work something out with the Repugs, Tea Partiers and Big Oil to shut Obama down.

What I don't understand is why anywhere from 30-40% of Canadians fall for his brand of crap.

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a lot of conspiring these days. Did you catch Christy Clark on Power and Politics recently? She awkwardly switched to the subject of Keystone and said how she was a 'good citizen' and supporting this project. Expect this 'good citizen' strategy to surface more frequently. Yes I love my country, therefor I support Keystone.

The Mound of Sound said...

Hi, Anon. No, I didn't see Christy's performance. 'Good citizen' sounds like compliant serf. I thought she was being paid to be our premier, not a dutiful gun bearer.