Phil Gramm, a former Republican senator from Texas, currently serves as vice chairman of investment firm UBS Warburg. His role advising Sen. McCain on economic policy has recently been criticized for two reasons: he was largely responsible for the lax regulations that led to the Enron debacle, and his current employer has been embroiled in the subprime mortgage crisis.[1] In 2004, Gramm encountered criticism from Texas Democrats for supposed illegal lobbying for a plan to bail out the state's teacher pension fund. According to critics, Gramm failed to register as a lobbyist before taking up the issue.[2] Gramm's name has come up in other scandals as well. During the 2006 corruption trial of Republican Illinois Gov. George Ryan, Ryan accused Gramm's congressional staff of giving thousands of dollars in donations to Ryan in exchange for an endorsement for Gramm's aborted 1996 presidential campaign. Asked about the propriety of such an arrangement, Gramm said, "It's a difference between love and prostitution."[3] Gramm was also tied into the collapse of Enron. His wife, Wendy Gramm, had served on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she helped write regulations that removed oversight of companies like Enron. She then took a seat on the company's board, while Enron employees gave $95,000 in contributions to Gramm's campaigns.[4] Gramm's role as an economic advisor to the McCain campaign and his public presence on the campaign trail were both reduced in July after Gramm said the country was in a "mental recession" and had become a nation of "whiners."[5]
Gramm is no stranger to excessive fundraising. In 1996 in his failed run for the Republican presidential nomination, Gramm raised a then-record-setting $4.1 million at one event to kick off his campaign, at which he declared, "I have the most reliable friend you can have in American politics, and that's ready money." [6] As a bundler, he has raised at least $100,000 for McCain's presidential campaign, according to information released by the campaign.[7]
For a complete look at Phil Gramm's lobbying activities, please visit the non-partisan Center For Responsive Politics' money-in-politics database.