Friday's call

On Friday's call, one thing in particular troubled me that I wanted to mention privately. You said, I believe, that senior management doesn't see a role for government affairs in the SEC/partnership issue. I think that's a fundamental error.

I know I haven't been here as long as others, but after five months one things is crystal clear to me: There are people out there who really hate us, commercial competitors, politicians, interest group types, etc. I fully anticipate they will use recent events as a way to try and do us further harm in the political, regulatory, public perception arenas.

I would hate for our senior management to think that this will play out in a nice orderly legal proceeding where everything is dealt with in terms of facts and reason and law. I believe this episode will play out more along the lines of CA, though on a smaller scale, where demagogues use this for their own advantages.

I believe gov't affairs needs to play an important role sooner rather than later.