Usa Forum - Re: Special Interests

Nate

2/15/2004 12:12:00 AM

"Sharon Andrews" <rs8@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:0ypXb.66268$uS3.37517@bignews4.bellsouth.net...

>
> washingtonpost.com
> He Ought to Know
>
> Saturday, February 14, 2004; Page A28
>
> IT'S HARD TO RECALL a more brazen display of political chutzpah than the
> Bush campaign's assault on Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) as a captive of
> special interests. A video e-mailed Thursday night to 6 million supporters
> attacks the Democratic front-runner as an "unprincipled" collector of
> special-interest cash. The video cites a report in this newspaper that Mr.
> Kerry led the senatorial pack in collecting money from the very Washington
> lobbyists that he is busy decrying on the campaign trail. As the dollar
> amount -- $640,000 -- shows on the screen, a female announcer emits a
sound
> of pained surprise. "Oooh," she says, "For what? Nominations and donations
> coincided." The video concludes: "Fact. Kerry -- Brought to you by the
> special interests. Millions from executives at HMOs, telecoms, drug
> companies. Ka-ching!"
>
> Mr. Kerry's fundraising and his relationships with Washington lobbyists
are
> a legitimate topic, even more so now that he has positioned himself, or
> tried to, as the scourge of Washington business as usual. But -- how can
we
> say this politely? -- let's consider the source.
>
> Mr. Bush's acceptance of special-interest money and his subsequent rewards
> to the industries doing the giving dwarf anything in Mr. Kerry's record.
> According to the Center for Responsive Politics, whose figures are cited
in
> the Bush campaign video, Mr. Bush has raised more than four times as much
> from lobbyists during the 2004 race as Mr. Kerry has -- $960,000 for Mr.
> Bush to $235,000 for Mr. Kerry. During the 2000 contest, the Bush campaign
> assigned an industry code to givers so it would know precisely how much it
> was beholden and to whom. As electric utility lobbyist Thomas Kuhn
explained
> in a 1999 letter to fundraisers, putting the code on the check "does
ensure
> that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the
> other business/industry sectors." Mr. Kuhn's progress may well have been
> noted; he met at least 14 times with Vice President Cheney's energy task
> force.
>
> "Nominations and donations coincided"? You wonder what possessed the Bush
> people to bring that up. Of Mr. Bush's Pioneers -- those who raised at
least
> $100,000 in the 2000 campaign -- 21 snagged ambassadorships, and these
> weren't hardship postings. Checks from "HMOs, telecoms, drug companies"?
Mr.
> Bush has swamped Mr. Kerry in all three sectors during this campaign,
raking
> in 10 times as much from donors connected to the pharmaceutical industry
> ($585,000 to $58,000) and telecommunications ($578,000 to $58,000). The
> liberal group Public Citizen counted 53 registered lobbyists among the
> current Pioneers and Rangers (the $200,000-and-up crowd.) Total amount
> bundled by lobbyists? At least $6.5 million this time around. Ka-ching.
> Ka-ching. Ka-ching.
>
> And, since Mr. Bush brought it up, it's worth remembering that Mr. Kerry
> actually has some bona fides in the area of campaign finance ethics. He
> swore off checks from political action committees during his Senate races.
> He supported the McCain-Feingold legislation to end big soft-money checks
to
> political parties -- which Mr. Bush's party did its best to kill and which
> the president only reluctantly signed. While the Bush administration
fights
> to keep secret the activities of its energy task force, Mr. Kerry has
> promised to release the records of his meetings with lobbyists during his
> time in office.
>
> The Bush video may be a long-shot effort to help derail Mr. Kerry's march
to
> the Democratic nomination. More likely, it's an attempt to neutralize the
> special-interest issue, to inoculate the Bush White House against
> accusations that it's a captive of special interests and to muddy the
waters
> by convincing voters that both candidates are equally complicit. We don't
> think voters are quite that slow.

Yes, Kerry has taken money from "Special Interests". Yes, he has taken more
money from lobbiests than any other senator in the past 15 years. An YES,
BUSH HAS RAISED MORE MONEY FROM SPECIAL INTERESTS IN THREE YEARS THAN KERRY
COLLECTED IN ALL THOSE YEARS COMBINED, AND YES, BUSH HAS RAISED MORE SPECIAL
INTEREST MONEY THAT CLINTON (YOU REMEMBER THE "FUNDRAISER IN CHIEF") DID IN
EIGHT YEARS. But, that's because the people love Bush so much. The people
at Enron who gave the largest donation to Bush's campaign.

--
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http://www.gentlem...
"It aint what you don't know that'll hurt ya, it's what you "know" that aint
so." -- Will Rogers

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Re: Special Interests

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