Financial Executives International, a professional group that represents 15,000 senior financial executives, has expressed displeasure with the Chamber's threat to push for a congressional overhaul of Sarbanes-Oxley. Among other things, the Chamber seeks an exemption for some small public companies from Section 404 because it contends the compliance requirements are too costly. "Section 404 needs to be right-sized, but we think it should be handled by the SEC, not Congress," says Grace Hinchman, senior vice president of public affairs for FEI. "Does the Chamber really understand what it is talking about here?" she asks rhetorically.

Working with the SEC does not seem to be high on Donohue's priority list. His organization has been at war with the agency over issues broad and narrow. The Chamber has accused the SEC of overzealous enforcement. Donohue also has taken the SEC to court to challenge a ruling that 75 percent of a mutual fund's directors be independent and that the fund have an independent chairman. (He appears to have won that battle; a federal appeals court recently instructed the SEC to review this particular rule.)

The Chamber's fights with the SEC have prompted Nell Minow, co-founder of The Corporate Library, a corporate-governance research firm in Portland, Maine, to describe Donohue as "a thug. He is big and loud and wrong. I am horrified at the way he has politicized the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, diminishing its credibility. And by attacking the SEC, which protects investors, he has shown nothing but contempt for the shareholders, who provide the capital for business. He is not probusiness. He is pro-executive."

Donohue is unrepentant. Three decades in Washington have left him with a pretty thick hide, and he seems to relish the thought of a few more bare-knuckle battles in the courts and in the halls of Congress. "I'll retire when I've lost my acuity, my passion, or my energy," Donohue says. "And I've still got all three."

P.B. Gray is a freelance business writer based in suburban Boston.

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