Reply #72: Marc Racicot, president of the American Insurance Association!!!

[UpInArms]

"The absence of any major storm or earthquake has allowed insurers to post two modestly profitable years. But it wasn't long ago, 2004 and 2005, when our industry suffered record natural-catastrophe losses," Marc Racicot, president of the American Insurance Association, said in a statement.

"Our industry is highly competitive, and property-casualty insurance policyholders have more layers of consumer protection than virtually any other segment of the financial services industry."

Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man

When the Florida recount fiasco was in full-throttle, the Bush team called in one of its top fixers to deal with the media and help put the finishing touches on the brusque strategy that helped seal the election. That man was Marc Racicot, the former governor of Montana. Many thought would be rewarded for his efforts with a top post in the Bush White House. Although he was on the short list for both Secretary of the Interior and Attorney General, Racicot ended up in the cushy post as head of the Republican National Committee, where his deft fundraising abilities fattened the RNC vaults with a record $250 million in soft money contributions for the 2002 election cycle.

Racicot didn't just sit on that mountain of cash; he used it like a MOAB bomb on Democrats. He is credited along with Karl Rove of with devising the media strategy that yielded such great triumphs for the Republicans in the 2002 elections.

In early June, Bush tapped Racicot as the chairman of his reelection campaign and already the corporate loot is pouring into the Bush campaign coffers. It was an astute choice. Although his name is hard to pronounce (Ross-Co), Racicot presents a kinder media presence than the other visigoths in the Bush camp. One Republican staffer called him "the white Colin Powell, the only two Bush advisers with any kind of sex appeal."

Racicot, whose hair is as delicately managed as John Kerry's, may look benign next to the frightful visages of Rove and Rumsfeld but he's a ruthless politician who is as far to the right as anyone in the Bush inner circle. Just ask those who know him best: the people of Montana.

Racicot served as governor of Montana from 1994 through 2000, where he slashed taxes, carried water for big timber, deregulated the state's electric utilities and moaned ceaselessly about the oppressive hand of the federal government. Prior to that Racicot served two terms as attorney general for the Big Sky state.

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