It could be that he’s thinking of just how much money he’s going to make after he successfully concludes his job negotiations with a company he’s currently regulating. Or it could be that he’s thinking that the indolent Oklahoma press hasn’t bothered to check out the political leanings of the ultra-left liberal think-tank that sent him around the world and gave him a chance to pose for this picture in front of the pyramids.

Seriously folks, what in the world could Cloud have been thinking when he joined up with the liberal Aspen Institute, headed by former Clinton News Network President Walter Isaacson? Even a simple search of the internet reveals the effete and haughty notions behind the organization, whose major contributors include left-wing crazy and billionaire George Soros, who used the Aspen Institute from which to stage his effort to defeat President Bush in 2004. The Aspen Institute housed and “re-educated” (against capitalism no doubt) little Elian Gonzalez after former Attorney General Janet Reno kidnapped the little Cuban shipwreck survivor from his uncle. What so-called conservative would join an organization that helped force a little six-year old boy to leave the United States and go back into a brutal communist dictator’s regime? And why would Cloud, as rumors persist, be headed to Beijing in August with Aspen to observe the Olympics in another brutal communist country? Some political insiders, when contacted by OKPNS, expressed dismay when informed of Cloud’s participation in the organization. “Obviously Cloud didn’t do his homework. I can’t believe he would knowingly join if he knew. It’s just not the type of thing you do if you really are running for re-election,” one expert told us. “You just know that somebody is going to figure it out, so he’s not running or he’s incredibly imprudent.

The speculation running rampant is that Cloud is close to making a deal to leave to work for what insiders say is a ‘natural gas company’ but that Cloud’s opinion of his worth differ greatly from his potential employer. There is no confirmation as to which company he is negotiating with, but stories from Cloud’s last election indicate Chesapeake Energy was the primary financial driver in his 2002 campaign, an arrangement that fellow Corporation Commission Bob Anthony found at the time to be questionable and possibly illegal.

Regardless, Jeff Cloud’s opponents now have a potent campaign issue if he abandons his rumored job search, and now it is too late to resign his membership in the Aspen Institute, which would be a tacit admission he was wrong to join.

OKPNS will continue to follow this story.

Labels: Chesapeake Energy, jeff cloud

Posted at 5/28/2008 01:42:00 PM