Ed Gillespie

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Edward W. Gillespie is an American Republican lobbyist, and current White House counsel to George W. Bush. Gillespie with Jack Quinn, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore, founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a bipartisan lobbying firm that provides strategic advice, public relations services, and government representation to corporations, trade associations, and issue-based coalitions.

[edit] Biography

Gillespie was born 15 August 1961 in Browns Mills, New Jersey. He is a graduate of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. While at CUA he began his career on Capitol Hill as a Senate parking lot attendant.

He began his political career as a telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985. He later worked for a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and was a principal drafter of the GOP's 1994 "Contract With America."[citation needed] In 1996, he became Director of Communications and Congressional Affairs for the Republican National Committee under Haley Barbour.

In March 1998, Gillespie was executive director of coalition supporting computer data encryption called Americans for Computer Privacy. Gillespie's message was that "Encryption is, far from being a geek issue, essential to citizens' individual liberty. The mission that goes with the message is a tough one: to halt a Clinton administration drive to set up a system requiring that software equipped with data-scrambling capabilities also include a way for law enforcement or national security agencies to quickly access the encrypted information" ([1]).

In 1999, Gillespie worked as the Press Secretary for the Presidential campaign of John Kasich. Kasich withdrew from the race that summer.

In 2000, Gillespie served as senior communications advisor for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, organizing the party convention program in Philadelphia for Bush's nomination and Bush's inauguration ceremony. He also played an aggressive role as spokesman for the Bush campaign during the vote recount in Florida.

In 2001, Gillespie briefly worked as acting director of public affairs for the U.S. Commerce Department, helping Secretary Donald Evans organize the agency and hire staff. In 2002, he was a strategist for Elizabeth Dole's 2002 Senate campaign.

Public Citizen has published a 25-page report calling Gillespie "an [2]) embedded lobbyist" and asserting that his appointment as RNC chairman "has opened a conduit for corporate America to strengthen its already formidable influence in the White House and Congress." Gillespie's wife was executive director of Joe Barton's political action committee, the Texas Freedom Fund.

As Chairman of the RNC, it was Ed Gillespie who authorized paying legal fees which eventually mounted into millions of dollars [3], to defend political consultant James Tobin against charges that he had been guilty of "telephone harassment" in the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal. Gillespie told reporters that the RNC had no contractual obligation but "it's the custom, not written anywhere, that you covered your people." He said that he had informed the White House of his intentions but sought no formal approval. [4]

In 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Gillespie in support of a comprehensive immigration reform package: "The Republican Party cannot become an anti-immigration party." ([5])

He was recently publicly visible after the 2006 Senate elections as a spokesman for defeated Virginia Senator George Allen. He had been tapped by Allen as a political adviser for a possible presidential run in 2008 before that loss.

Gillespie was chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from December 2006 to June 2007. His book "Winning Right" was released in the September of 2006.

[edit] Role as White House counsel

In late June of 2007, President Bush brought Gillespie into the White House on a full-time basis, to replace the departing Dan Bartlett with the mandate to help raise Bush's flagging popularity ratings. When Karl Rove also departed in August, the Washington Post described Gillespie as stepping up to do part of Karl Rove's job in the White House. Michael A. Fletcher. "As Rove Departs, President Again Turns to Gillespie." Washington Post. August 16, 2007 A later Post article describes Gillespie's role orchestrating a PR unit dedicated to "selling the surge to American voters and the media. Peter Baker et. al. "Among Top Officials, 'Surge' Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting." Washington Post. September 9, 2007. According to this article:

From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism...Gillespie arranged several presidential speeches to make strategic arguments, such as comparing Iraq to Vietnam or warning of Iranian interference. When critics assailed Bush for overstating ties between al-Qaeda and the group called al-Qaeda in Iraq, Gillespie organized a Bush speech to make his case. "The whole idea is to take these things on before they become conventional wisdom," said White House communications director Kevin Sullivan. "We have a very short window."

[edit] External links

This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Ed Gillespie under the terms of the GFDL.
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Chairpersons of the Republican National Committee
Edwin D. Morgan · Henry J. Raymond · Marcus L. Ward · William Claflin · Edwin D. Morgan · Zachariah Chandler · J. Donald Cameron · Marshall Jewell · Dwight M. Sabin · Benjamin F. Jones · Matthew Quay · James S. Clarkson · Thomas H. Carter · Mark Hanna · Henry C. Payne · George B. Cortelyou · Harry S. New · Frank H. Hitchcock · John F. Hill · Victor Rosewater · Charles D. Hilles · Will H. Hays · John T. Adams · William M. Butler · Hubert Work · Claudius H. Huston · Simeon D. Fess · Everett Sanders · Henry P. Fletcher · John Hamilton · Joseph W. Martin, Jr. · Bailey Walsh · Harrison E. Spangler · Herbert Brownell, Jr. · Carroll Reece · Hugh Scott · Guy G. Gabrielson · Arthur E. Summerfield · C. Wesley Roberts · Leonard W. Hall · Meade Alcorn · Thruston B. Morton · William E. Miller · Dean Burch · Ray C. Bliss · Rogers Morton · Bob Dole · George H. W. Bush · Mary L. Smith · Bill Brock · Dick Richards · Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. · Lee Atwater · Clayton K. Yeutter · Richard Bond · Haley Barbour · Jim Nicholson · Jim Gilmore · Marc Racicot · Ed Gillespie · Ken Mehlman · Mike Duncan