Korologos puts black eye to work to describe Iraq

WASHINGTON — Native Utahn Tom Korologos didn't suffer a scratch during five months amid the chaos in war-torn Iraq while helping to direct its reconstruction.

But when he returned to lobby Congress for support, he fell down the Capitol's exterior stone steps. He suffered a nasty black eye.

"What was worse was that a policewoman ran up yelling into her radio, 'Elderly white male down, elderly white male down.' That (description) was more embarrassing than falling," says the 70-year-old Korologos.

But the black eye now gives Korologos a prop to describe Iraq.

"When people say, 'What happened to you?' I say, 'It's not as bad as it looks.' I tell them the same is true about Iraq."

But he complains that positive stories about progress in Iraq — and discoveries of more atrocities by Saddam Hussein — are not gaining much attention in the U.S. press. One of his main jobs now is to tell Congress about them and to help sell President Bush's proposal for $87 billion in spending to help Iraq.

Korologos is a senior counselor to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, U.S. chief of reconstruction efforts in Iraq. As such, he helps advise efforts there — but has especially served as a liaison to Congress.

That's a natural for Korologos, who for decades was considered among the most powerful lobbyists in Washington — and maybe even its most influential. He also helped shepherd about 400 presidential nominees to confirmation through the years. In retirement, he answered a call to help his country in Iraq.

"We encourage as many members of Congress as possible to come to Iraq to see for themselves how it is going," Korologos says. "We've had 50 to 60 so far. Almost unanimously, they say it is enlightening to see that the coalition is indeed working, and they are shocked at the mass graves and squalor that Saddam created."

Korologos is spending two weeks in Washington to take his message to those who could not travel to Iraq, hoping to help pass the $87 billion in supplemental appropriations for Iraq efforts sought by Bush. He says lack of attention in the press to achievements there have made that job a bit tougher.

"There is a whole ton of success that we have every day that hardly sees the light of day (in the news media). It is sort of disconcerting," he says, realizing they are overshadowed as focus instead goes to soldiers wounded or killed.