John over at AmericaBlog is doing a great job digging up dirt on the goings-on behind Ford Motor Company’s recent decision to pull ads from gay publications due to pressure from the religious right.
The latest revelation is that the two Ford execs who negotiated the deal with the anti-gay groups, Ziad Ojakli and David Leitch, are former senior officials in the Bush White House. One of those execs is having strategy meetings out of his Ford office in support of Bush’s far-right court nominees.
From WardsAuto.com:
In a Nov. 29 meeting at AFA headquarters in Tupelo, MS, David Leitch, general counsel and vice president for Ford, and Ziad Ojakli, group vice president-Corporate Affairs, along with Dallas-area Ford dealer Jerry Reynolds, hammered out a deal.
“We are ending the boycott of Ford,” said Donald E. Wildmon, Chairman of AFA. “While we still have a few differences with Ford, we feel that our concerns are being addressed in good faith and will continue to be addressed in the future.”
A Ford spokesman says the two parties had a “broad discussion” and deferred to the AFA to announce the reconciliation details.
AmericaBlog has some contact info for Ojakli. What say we give him a call?