Google Faces Tough Questions -- Expands Political Giving

In the past, Google has prided itself on not having a presence in Washington DC.  Then CEO Eric Schmidt seemed to scorn the idea.  Now, facing an anti-trust probe from the Federal Trade Commission and investigation in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Google has taken a dramatically different attitude.  Recent news reports Google has been on a hiring and donation spree to right wing lobbyists and organizations trying to gain allies on Capitol Hill in the growing scrutiny of the company’s business practices.

The Huffington Post detailed Google’s efforts to gain friends on the Republican side of the aisle using their hefty wallet: 

Google, whose top executives have long been a bottomless cup of campaign coffee for Democrats, is finally entering its bipartisan phase, theatrically hiring Republican operatives and broadcasting the news through insider Washington publications, pumping air into a K Street tech bubble…. The company known for its progressive politics is now giving money to the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Republican Governors Association, the GOP firm The David All Group, Crossroads Strategies, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee, among others. On Thursday, Google and Fox News cosponsored a Republican presidential debate.

While this tactic may work for some legislators, it doesn’t seem to have had any impact on Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).  Lee has joined with Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) to hold hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee examining Google’s powerful market share and their ability to manipulate search results to pad their bottom line. 

At a recent hearing, Lee aggressively questioned Eric Schmidt, Google’s Executive Chairman on a host of issues relating to their market dominance and undermining their claim they are a neutral reporter of search results.

Schmidt acknowledged that Google’s size puts them “in the area” of a monopoly but asserted that they weren’t abusing that position. Senators Kohl and Lee both expressed skepticism citing instances where it appeared that Google had manipulated search results to benefit Google owned companies over their competitors.

The hearing was certainly an eye opener and both Sen. Lee and Kohl deserve credit for putting partisan differences aside to address this issue. 

Google will continue to try to build friends in Washington but it appears that Mr. Lee and Mr. Kohl aren’ playing by the traditional K-Street rules and won't be among them.