The Carlyle Group is the Bush family’s favorite international oil, defense, and media investment cartel. Even better-connected
than Halliburton, Carlyle’s payroll over the years has included both George H.W. and George W.
Bush, family consigliere James Baker, Colin Powell, Frank Carlucci,
and former British PM John Major.
They’re not quite as shadowy as a lot of people make them out to be; in fact, just by checking their website, you can find a list of their many investments in things that go pump, boom, and yak.
(And I personally find their growing ownership of media companies as
least as creepy as all the military and oil stuff. Obvious reasons.)
Poke around, and pretty soon you might get the feeling that Carlyle’s
ad slogan, if they ever bothered talking with mere civilians, would be
a riff on the old BASF campaign: "At Carlyle, we don’t make the wars…
we make the people who make the wars wealthier."
Now comes news that Carlyle is trying to augment their portfolio of 400
explody-kaboom companies by buying — of all things — the Togo’s,
Dunkin
Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins food chains.
I dunno. Maybe they just heard Togo’s makes submarines, and got all excited.
It’s sandwiches, guys. Just sandwiches.