Redstate

Posted at 1:53pm on May 30, 2008 Obama's transparency hypocrisy

By Soren Dayton

Barack Obama's campaign tries to play "count the lobbyist" with John McCain. Now I don't accept the lobbyist = bad equation, and so I think that this is all a little trivial.

But hypocrisy is not trivial. Let's do a little recount of the lobbyists around Obama.

There's Jim Johnson, who I have previously written about. Johnson has represented the former Prime Minister of Senegal, and as CEO of Fannie Mae, he improperly disclosed profits that resulted in him getting a big bonus he didn't deserve. Obama put this lobbyist-fundraiser-foreign-agent in charge of picking his Vice Presidential candidate.

There's Francisco J. Pavía, his Puerto Rico state director, and a lobbyist for the Government of Puerto Rico. That violates Obama's lobbyist policy. What have they done about that?

There's his chief strategist David Axelrod, may not be exactly a lobbyist but certainly represents a lot of those corporations that Obama condemns. Obama said "I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over." I guess that the corporate lobbyists are elemental evil, while corporate admen and astroturfers are all good.

Find me the logic in that. It doesn't stop. Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | lobbyists | Transparency — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:59pm on May 28, 2008 The Audacious Hypocrite

Barack Obama’s Enduring Lobbyist Ties

By Ben Domenech

Trying to lock up the 2008 nomination, Barack Obama sent one of his most prominent lobbyist allies to help convince Puerto Ricans to vote for him.

If you believed that whole shtick about this fellow as the bearer of a new kind of politics – one that rejected the typical Washington-centric choices of the past – well, good for you. You’re an optimist. Rock on. Invest in pork bellies. And yeah, I’m sure HD-DVD and Betamax will make a comeback.

Obama likes lobbyists. They’re likable people. They're paid to be likable, in fact.

Obama has tons of lobbyists hanging around his campaign, giving him money, whispering in his ears. We all knew that. But this is something more.

Obama’s co-director for his entire campaign in Puerto Rico, it turns out, is a Beltway-based federal lobbyist. Not just a little lobbying, no - someone who's made millions doing nothing but lobbying for the past seven years. And what's more, he hasn't even bothered to take a leave of absence from his firm to organize Obama's campaign effort in Puerto Rico.

Jeffrey Birnbaum at that biased neoconservative source, the Washington Post, reports below the fold:

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | lobbyists | Obamafiles — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:42am on Apr. 14, 2008 Barack Obama: Do as he says, not as he does.

By Erick

Here is what Obama is going to say today.

But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?

I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists, and I’m here to tell you that you can count on me to stand up for you after this election, just as I’ve been standing up for workers all my life. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

Of course, here is what Obama actually does.

Last fall, Barack Obama quietly slipped into the Miami headquarters of a major law firm scarred by the scandals of Jack Abramoff, its once-powerful Washington lobbyist who now sits in jail.

Arriving a little after 10 a.m. on Oct. 1, Obama spent the next three hours schmoozing, speaking in a video conference to branch offices and raising money at Greenberg Traurig, a billion-dollar firm with one of the biggest lobby shops here.

Obama has now raised about $125,000 from Greenberg Traurig employees -- nearly half of it at the time of the event -- more than from any of the other top law and lobby firms.

Symbolically, it was a starkly contradictory event: an appearance by the candidate who crusades most adamantly against lobbyists at the onetime firm of the poster child for out-of-control influence peddling.

Why is it liberals always want us to do as they say, not as they do? Of course he's not a hypocrite. Don't accuse him of being a hypocrite. He's a Democrat. Democrats can't be hypocrites. You actually have to stand for something to be a hypocrite.

Oh wait, does he stand for . . . . Nah. Never mind.

Posted in 2008 | Change | Culture of Corruption | Hope | Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them | lobbyists | Obama — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:04am on Feb. 21, 2008 Democrats defending lobbyists and criminals clammoring for more cops... is this a fever dream?

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

God Bless the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.  There are times they drive me crazy.  They tend to drift into areas of discussion that advocate for the elimination of Constitutionally protected rights from time to time but other than that they're really swell guys.  And when they're on their game they do one heck of a job exposing the dark underbelly of Lansing policy making.  

Posted in Breaking News | Detroit | Kwame | lobbying | lobbyists | Michigan | Spending — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »