Starbucks Hires Lobbyist -- Former Clinton Aide

Front page news, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, that Starbucks is making a move on Washington, D.C., guided largely by their lobbyist, Kris Friend-of-Bill Engskov. "Cautiously, Starbucks Puts Lobbying on Menu."

Just add another stick to the fire, Starbucks.

On the very same day, Tuesday, before I'd seen the article, I wrote here about Starbucks' record on political contributions -- 100% Democrat!

DRINK DUNKIN' DONUTS COFFEE!

So along comes the Journal to offer confirmation and add fuel to my anti-Starbucks drive. (Come join in the Great Coffee Switch of 2005!) As it turns out, Engskov (the lobbyist) joined Starbucks in 2002 after serving as "a personal aide to President Clinton."

Now I'm not one for guilt-by-personal-association, but the Journal does go on to report that they are all Communists.

Kidding. What the Journal actually said was that the Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz has "given money almost exclusively to Democrats." And then reported on a Schultz lobbying trip to DC where he:

. . .spoke before the Democratic Caucus's regular policy luncheon. When he finished explaining his health-care program, senators were buzzing about having a successful corporate model they could use to showcase their policy.

But hey, maybe I shouldn't be too quick to judge: The whole point of the article was the "Starbucks footnote" that Engskov managed to get inserted in the 2004 tax bill which netted Starbucks, oh, a few million dollars. Actually sounds pretty red-state to me. . .

Nah, go buy Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

Addendum: Michael has written to tell me that he is still unconvinced (his original comments here) about the efficacy of my Coffee Switch Campaign. I'm headed to Cedarville University tomorrow to talk about sex trafficking, so I'll respond to his comments when I get back. I'll probably also throw in something about sex trafficking for good measure.

Posted at 1:39 AM
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