Post a guard at the revolving door

Remember Carol Shia? She was the New York City police officer fired after posing for Playboy in uniform: the NYPD thought it was inappropriate to use a police uniform for personal gain — and in such a questionable manner. The Carol Shia problem is found in politics as well, where politicians use their 'uniforms' — or the networks those uniforms create — to advance themselves personally.

There are laws to prevent conflicts of interest: the stocks held by elected officials are frozen until their terms end. But there are no laws that prevent former elected officials from using their former positions for financial gain in their current positions. Take, for example, the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that employs former top-ranking officials in the elder Bush and Reagan administrations.

The Carlyle Group makes money by buying undervalued companies and selling them at a profit. And it counts among its "advisors, "investors" and "directors" former President George Bush, former Bush Secretary of State James Baker '52, former Reagan Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci '52 and Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs under President Clinton.

There has always been a revolving door between business and government, right? And what's so bad about allowing former government officials to earn the big bucks in big business? After all, everyone knows how little they make in public service. In fact, there's nothing wrong with this. The public grants former officials the privilege to use the contacts and prestige of their former posts for personal gain. But the Carlyle Group abuses that privilege.

Two-thirds of the firm's investments are in the defense and telecommunications industries, both of which are directly affected by changes in government policy. The Carlyle Group is currently competing with other firms for several billion-dollar defense contracts — including a $13.7 billion contract for the Crusader program to build tanks. It might help its case that one of its Managing Directors, Frank Carlucci '52, went to college with the current Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld '54. "I know Rumsfeld extremely well," Carlucci recently told The New York Times. "We've been close friends through the years."

Additionally, former President Bush recently discussed Carlyle's investments in the Middle East with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. And after Bush met with the Prime Minister of South Korea, Carlyle won control of the South Korean bank, KorAm. How can you top the connections made by being president?

The Carlyle Group argues that former officials like Bush and Carlucci do not lobby the federal government. But then again, they don't have to. The firm's ties to the current administration are much stronger than any act of lobbying could be.

"George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity in an interview for The New York Times. "And in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments."

The line between business and government is becoming increasingly blurred — and that is not necessarily bad. Businesses will keep trying to gain an edge over their competitors by building stronger networks. And they should be allowed. But the Carlyle Group has taken this to an extreme. Former public officials are allowed to enter business — as board members, for example — when they leave government because they are private citizens again. But they're not, really. They have contacts and influence beyond that of other Americans — and that's what makes them so attractive to firms like Carlyle. It's pretty clear that something needs to be fixed when the President's family is benefiting from contracts put before his administration.

Congress has, until now, not supported campaign finance reform legislation, which would limit the influence of business on politics. And it is unlikely that the Carlyle Group will provoke a change in that attitude. But without such reform, politics will become an even firmer stepping stone to business — without such reform, the integrity of 'a noble profession' will be diminished.

(Adam Frankel is from New York City. He can be reached at afrankel@princeton.edu)