Signorile on Sullivan

[Tom Wheeler]

From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Francis now works with DCI Group, a p.r. firm that has represented
> Big Tobacco and the NRA, founded by a former R.J. Reynolds tobacco
> company field coordinator. During the 90s, Francis had his own firm,
> State Affairs Company, which had Philip Morris among its clients. In
> 1996 SAC was exposed in The Washington Post as having created a front
> group for Philip Morris-a supposedly nonpartisan citizens' watchdog
> group that was secretly collecting data on behalf of Big Tobacco to
> use against trial lawyers (detailing their political contributions,
> etc.).

I remember Charles Francis when I worked several months as a "temp" for
State Affairs Company in '96. Real slick guy. He worked closely with David
McCloud and Bobby Watson, two other parters in SAC who were involved
previously with sleaze and coverup as aides to Chuck Robb. They also went
after Nader and infiltrated the local greens in DC. Francis had a ton of
files on the green groups and on Consumers Union. Francis enjoyed pitching
SAC to potential corporate clients. My favorite was a letter to Citicorp
where Francis invoked Timothy McVeigh as he bragged outrageously about the
media blast that SAC had secretly orchestrated: "PS: ... You will enjoy a
major column targeting Consumers Union to appear soon on the Wall Street
Journal editorial page. Quoting Tim McVeigh, 'something big is going to
happen.' " Boy, was Francis really pissed when those documents ended up at
PR Watch. One of my more exciting temp jobs. - Tom