Lobbying for Libya--and Bush

Hudome then continued: "Remember this: We do not want to do anything that might harm the President's chances of re-election by exposing him to any controversy. If you have doubts about these names--perhaps we don't need to do this press release."

The e-mails were posted this week, without comment and without any reference to Hudome's role as Libyan lobbyist, on the Web site of GeorgeWBush.org, an anti-Bush site that tries to imitate the look of the official Bush campaign Web site--GeorgeWBush.com--but laces it with material lampooning the president, such as links to spoof organizations like Billionaires for Bush and Pleasure Boat Captains for Truth.

Phares inadvertently sent e-mails meant for Karim, the Bush campaign official, to the wrong e-mail address by typing in GeorgeWBush.org. The anti-Bush site said the e-mails, along with many others directed to the Bush campaign, wound up in a "catch all" e-mailbox--the contents of which it gleefully shared with its readers this week. "It was sort of a trap," said Phares.

The pro-Bush endorsement contains language praising the president's record in a number of areas, including the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Israel-Palestine issue--and Libya. Specifically, it states: "We thank and congratulate the president for succeeding in the process of disarming the Libyan regime [of Kaddafi] and feel that a second term of the Bush presidency will press the Libyan regime to reform, and release the political prisoners."

Hudome said she did not write or tinker with the language on Libya and said she saw no conflict between its call for reform and her own representation of Libya. "Just because you represent a government doesn't mean you support everything they're doing," she said.

© 2004