Google guy stumbles in DC

Sergey Brin came to Washington. He was dressed like an amateur. Some lawmakers treated him like one, too.

Wearing blue jeans, silver mesh sneakers and a black T-shirt and jacket, according to the Washington Post, the co-founder of Google found  that while he may be a multi-billionaire, he's nobody to some on Capitol Hill.   Four Senators passed on meetings to discuss Net Neutrality, the newspaper reported.   He was able to talk with four others including McCain, Smith (R.-Ore.), Dorgan and Obama.

Brin took the rebuffs in stride, saying his visit was kind of spontaneous. "It wasn't very well organized I apologize.  It was a last minute trip."   Although he did show up in this button-down town dressed more like an airplane maintenance man than the owner of a Boeing 767, he shouldn't take all the responsibility for the failure of the slap-dash fly-in.

He's got people here, but whether they're working and effective is now a question.  Google is, most likely, spending millions, to show its face and push its position in the Capitol.  There are four people in the DC office. Plus there is a contract with the 25-person lobbying firm PodestaMattoon.  In late March, this "top lobbying firm" touted  its being hired by Google. 

Not much bang for those bucks yesterday, Brin.

Disclaimer: I own shares of Google.

Comments

[Axel]

Fully agree with jack

[Vin DiBono]

To get anything substantive done, he should have paid the piper (i.e. greased the proper palms), *and* worn a suit, *and* brought a film crew. Having met him, Brin also needs to develop some semblance of a personality.

[j.a.m.]

Mr. Brin's stunt was astonishing in itself, but I can't get over the naivete and immaturity of some of the above comments.

We can only hope Mr. Brin has learned a lesson in respect for other people (and for the symbols of our democracy) that he should have learned in kindergarten.

[Casey Dawson]

Only a Snob judges people on the way they dress. It just goes to show how shallow many of our politicians have become. It's obvious that greed & corruption rules the day in our nations capitol. Just reading the daily news is proof of that.

Had Mr. Brin been reaching for his wallet when he stumbled, I believe the other four Senators would have been first on the scene to give a helping hand.

Many of our political leaders have become a down-right embarrassment to all of us and our country.

C. Dawson

[Keven]

WOW!!!

THIS IS REALLY HUGE NEWS!

THIS HAS COMPLETELY CHANGED MY ENTIRE OUTLOOK ON GOOGLE!!!

Idiot

[tim thresh]

instead of amateurish reporting about his dress the reason for his trip shouldm have been discussed.

[Paul Deering]

I'll take an honest hardworking successful guy in sneakers than some button-downed fiscal-deficit flunkie anytime.

[Lorenzo Q. Squarf]

Google is an astonishing phenomenon, and its creators represent the American Dream, in spades. If it is necessary to dress like a popinjay and wave money around in order to see and discuss concerns with our elected representatives then our nation has sold its soul to
a bunch of greedy pigs. I suggest that Mr. Brim's next visit include a sachel full of money, and a sign around his neck which proclaims, "I have money. Who will talk to me?" He will be mobbed... even if he is wearing sneakers! And the ass-kissing flunkies that Google has hired (the
"lobbyists") are nothing more than pimps... and many of them are out-and-out whores.

Mr. Brim: you don't need the government; the government needs you. Keep your chin up and go forward.
-Squarf www.squarf.com

[Bob Anderson]

So...if a bribe taking Senator wears a Brooks Brothwers suit he is allowed to falsify intel, take us into war, raid the Social Security "lockbox" and take his wife on a corporate jet to Fiji or Bermuda so he can "study" the effects of US aid (AID - that's MY MONEY) on beach formations?

Get a life Ber..Bur...Bar....BUNKO

[Ammar]

Take is easy.... a bunch of good for nothing war mongers cant undo the excellent work by google.

[Jay Stiles]

Why does the media criticize Google when on the other hand they portray as the victim of "bullying" the 900-pound gorilla in the room? Microsoft.

Google provides for free, the greatest service of all time - fast, no-fee information.

Microsoft, the 900-pound gorilla, the most pernicious and hands-down greatest monopoly of all time, horizontal and vertical, its tentacles stealing, spreading throughout the world, suppressing innovation, wants to step on the puppy.

If Microsoft attains a dominant postion in the search-engine field, then Bill Gates will be the world's first trillionaire.

[Beth Story]

No offense, but I always find it refreshing when people are authentic and not "marketed" or otherwise sold by lobbying firms. If Washington, DC culture is that much different from the rest of the world then perhaps it is time DC changes. I am hoping the mid-term elections might get that message through to the hoopos running the Congress and White House. The closer the Google guys stay to who they were when they started their company the better for the company and for its customers.

Besides, who in their right mind has any respect for Congress these days. Over 70% of Americans have no confidence in them, according to polls released yesterday. They are mostly craven, crooked, or so risk-averse as to be totally useless.

[TJ]

WTF do you people do all day?? Get a life.

[Fishstick]

I don't think his dress mattered much. He represents a group of 'content providers', that stand directly on the opposite end of the net-neutrality fight from another powerful group, telecoms...

Are we dismissing consideration of how these senators that refused google, might have already been in the pocket of Google's opposition?

[Tallac]

What a tool...

[Fred Bloggs]

Quote - "Google is, most likely, spending millions, to show its face and push its position in the Capitol."

Where did you leard to write?

[George]

There's a difference between casual and sloppy. Larry Page is casual; Sergey Brin is often sloppy. Around the 'plex is one thing; lobbying senators over important issues is entirely another.

A friend who works at Google sent me these photos some time ago. This is what Sergey Brin wore the day that former President Jimmy Carter visited Google.

http://i5.tinypic.com/121a4vl.jpg
http://i6.tinypic.com/121acer.jpg

[Tom]

What part of public SERVANT don't they understand?

[Rockpruf]

Google is important to someone but not to politicians who realize that if google disappears tomorrow very few people will suffer besides stock players with a fetish for buying the top and guys, like Brin, who somehow believe that heavily spam-oriented search results (with the benefits of advertising) can save the world.

It's only a search engine (with all the mediocrities intrinsic in that media) heavily invested in by a few connected fund managers: it doesn't cure, satisfy hunger or create art.

The China situation shows that in its short run it's done more harm than good.

[OpportunityisFreedom]

I'll take the informal ragged dress of capitalism over the archaic, bureaucratic, buttoned-down gridlock of modern US congress any day. Not only do I like the statement he made by showing up like that, I think he should find out who the future seat opponents are of the short-sighted arrogant idiots who passed on the meetings with him, and then contribute a few million to the campaigns to dethrone them. Just take 'em out, without saying one single word. US congress is full of self-serving provincially-minded dinosaurs, and they deserve little respect. They take, while business makes. This is not the end of this little story.

Hey, invest in China. They understand that pro-growth pure capitalism trumps puritan American political/civil arrogance, socio-ethnic preoccupation, and general lard-ass malaise.

[ray reaves]

I also own shares in Google. However, not sure it in the best interest of the company for one of the owners to show up looking like a hick for the sticks. Blue jeans and tennis shoes do not belong on capital hill, certainly not in the front of a legislative committee. Come on Google, get with it.

[ray reaves]

I also own shares in Google. However, not sure it in the best interest of the company for one of the owners to show up looking like a hick for the sticks. Blue jeans and tennis shoes do not belong on capital hill, certainly not in the front of a legislative committee. Come on Google, get with it.

[greenerbuzz]

A rather well read man once said "When in Rome,..." Although I abhor the thought of becoming what I am not to just to get a hearing. Unless they are the ONLY route, I’d seriously question their value, especially in Washington.
If the issue was important, Sergey should have done his homework.

[Peter Duray-Bito]

Still drinking the kool-aid of the GOOG smoke-and-mirrors play, I see. I'd say wake up and smell the coffee but that's so nineties...

[Nicole]

I say good for him. I hate all those stuffy hill type politicians. Think they make stuff happen, ya like nothing compared to what this one little search site has grown into. Don't cater to them Sergey! Of course they'll probably hit you with some sort of law-suit in a few years. But Google will continue it's reign, just move to china!!! mwhahahahhahahahahaha!