Monday, January 7, 2013

Hagel's PEU Rally

Senator Chuck Hagel's financially powerful brethren threw their support behind his Pentagon nomination.  Consider the spate of private equity underwriters (PEU's) in this one paragraph of Hagel supporters:

Hagel’s supporters, former National Security advisors Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, former US Ambassador to Israel Tom Pickering, former Defense Secretary  Frank Carlucci, and World Bank President James Wolfensohn.

Brent Scrowcroft - Strategic Partner with Torch Hill Investment Partners (Bloomberg).  Torch Hill's website offered the following Scowcroft quote:

"Globalization has made the world economy more integrated, more efficient and more susceptible to disruption than ever before in our history."--Brent Scowcroft, Former National Security Advisor, Strategy Partner, Torch Hill Investment Partners

Torch Hill's portfolio is a spate of Defense Department Contractors.  Torch Hill's Chairman co-chairs the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

Mr. Thomas Reeve Pickering is a Strategic Advisor at NGP Energy Capital Management.  The Carlyle Group invested in NGP just before Christmas.

Frank Carlucci, Chairman Emeritus for The Carlyle Group.  Carlucci also is Co-Founder and Chairman of Advisory Board at Frontier Group

James Wolfensohn is founder of Wolfensohn and Company, an investment and advisory firm specializing in emerging market economies.  Chuck Hagel is a director of Wolfensohn and Company.

I illuminated Chuck Hagel's other PEU ties, Advisory Board Member for Corsair Capital and Senior Advisor for McCarthy Capital.  If you search under retired political heavyweight rocks, there's likely a PEU.