THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL WHO LOOKS LIKE HE LAYS PEOPLE OFF... LOOKS AREN'T DECEIVING THIS TIME
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Not that tough to figure out what lurks beneath... just follow the money
Yesterday's Willard press conference in Columbia, South Carolina big box store, saw the Republican's flip-floppin'-est, say-anything-est candidate get into a tussle with an A.P. reporter who was fed up hearing Romney's shameless stream of lies and distortions. If you missed it, take a look at the video clip below.
This morning Mother Jones did a little fact checking on ole Willard's claims that his campaign is not run by a pack of corporate lobbyists. Attempting to contrast himself to Mr. Keating 5 McCain, a darling of K Street corruption, Romney told reporters "My campaign is not based on Washington lobbyists. I haven't been in Washington. I don't have lobbyists at my elbow that are arguing for one industry or another industry and I do not have favors I have to repay to people who have been in Washington for years." He didn't ask the reporters if any of them had ever been to Washington or knew where it was but he did manage to get the A.P. reporter who's been subjected to his endless stream of distortions for months, to challenge him and, as Mother Jones proved this morning, Willard was lying (as usual) and the reporter was exactly right.
The truth is that Romney is tied closely with many lobbyists. The AP reporter Romney exchanged sharp words with later reported that several Romney aides and advisers are lobbyists. Additionally, as the Nation first reported, Romney has accepted more money from lobbyists and received more endorsements from lobbyists than any other Republican presidential candidate.
The lobbyists who have endorsed Romney have represented, in 2007 alone, nearly every part of the health care and financial services industries, the NRA, members of the tobacco industry, and gambling interests.
In fact, nearly every lobbyist who has endorsed Romney is peddling influence for the health care industry. They represent insurance companies like AIG and New York Life; trade groups like the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association and the Healthcare Leadership Council (which reps "chief executives from all disciplines within the health care system"); pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer; and other extensions of the American health care apparatus like the California Association of Physicians Groups, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, the American Dental Association, and the Biotechnology Industry Association.
Romney's lobbyists also represent Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte & Touche, and most of the major accounting firms. Several of them work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At least one works for the NRA. Collectively, they represent huge swaths of the energy industry, including big players like the American Petroleum Institute and Chevron Texaco.
Romney's pals have also lobbied for the Carlyle Group, Microsoft, American Airlines, the Venetian Casino Resort, the Poker Players Alliance, and TOP Tobacco.
The Washington publication Roll Callhas listed the lobbyists who are endorsing Romney (there are currently 24). As a public service and a reminder to Governor Romney, we used the Senate lobbying registry to pull out some of the clients they work for. This is a partial list, and is limited to 2007 clients only.
Phil Anderson (Navigators)
• AIG
• New York Life Insurance Co.
Henry Bonilla (The Normandy Group)
• Verizon Communications
• TIG Insurance
• National Association of Community Health Centers
• American Airlines
• King Aerospace, Inc.
Michael Bromberg (Capitol Health Group)
• Health Industry Group Purchasing Association
• America's Health Insurance Plans
• Healthcare Leadership Council
Cesar Conda (Navigators)
• GlaxoSmithKline
• New York Life Insurance Co.
• AIG
• Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers
John Feore (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal)
• Wellpoint, Inc.
• California Association of Physicians' Groups
Amy Flachbert (K&L Gates)
• International Intellectual Property Institute
• Biotechnology Industry Organization
• Microsoft Corp.
• Neurotechnology Industry Organization
• AIG Technical Services
• Silverlink
Nate Gatten (American Capitol Group)
• Freddie Mac
• American Dental Assocation
Gregg Hartley (Cassidy & Associates)
• T-Mobile
• Deutsche Telekom
• Disney/ABC
• Freddie Mac
Ed Kutler (Clark & Weinstock)
• Pfizer
• Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance
• PhRMA
Drew Maloney (Ogilvy Government Relations)
• American Chemistry Council
• Monsanto
• American Petroleum Institute
• Reliant
• Chevron Texaco
• NRA
• Citigroup
• Fannie Mae
• Carlyle Group
Darryl Nirenbergh (Patton Boggs)
• TOP Tobacco
• Venetian Casino Resort
• Poker Players Alliance
David Norcross (Blank Rome)
• HealthSouth Corporation
Vin Weber (Clark & Weinstock)
• Goldman Sachs
• Deloitte & Touche
• Ernst & Young
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• KPMG
• Xcel Energy Services
• Great River Energy
• Semiconductor Industry Association
• American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
• HealthSouth Corporation
• Health Net
• Pfizer
UPDATE: MAINSTREAM MEDIA WAKES UP-- OH GOD, ROMNEY IS AN INSIDER CORPORATIST WHORE!
Why is someone surprised. Willard is a typical non-visionary, non-innovator management geek. I ran across this type throughout the corporate world. It's exactly what he has in common with George Bush, although he isn't as lazy and stupid as Bush. You'd have thought the Boston Herald would have figured this out long ago. But today they are breathlessly reporting that he has over a dozen lobbyists as part of his team.
Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney, who has cast himself as a Washington outsider and blasted his opponents’ ties to lobbyists, has more than a dozen federally registered lobbyists raising money for him and several others advising his campaign, records show.
At a Nashua event the day before the New Hampshire primary, Romney said, “I don’t have years and years of favors to repay, lobbyists who have raised all sorts of money for me.”
But at least 13 lobbyists work as so-called bundlers-- those responsible for prodding deep-pocketed donors and generating vast sums of money for the candidate-- according to records compiled by nonprofit Washington watchdog Public Citizen.
...According to Public Citizen, Romney has refused to make good on a previous promise to release a list of top fund-raisers.
Labels: lobbyists, Mitt Romney, Republican presidential race
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 12:27 PM
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Great article. The reality is that virtually all the candidates are owned by special interests. Please read the press release below.
PRESS RELEASE
From: Porter for Congress
To: Media, PA-03
Date: Jan. 17, 2008
Contact: Dr. Steven Porter (814-739-0228)
CHANGE UNLIKELY, SAYS PORTER
In a statement issued from his home today, independent candidate for Congress in the 3rd district of Pennsylvania, Dr. Steven Porter, said that the change being proposed by the major party candidates will be extremely unlikely.
“Change is the new buzz-word,” said Porter. “All the candidates sense the dissatisfaction of the public with the current policies of our government, and they are all pandering to the voters by insisting that they represent a new way of doing things. The reality is that most of the major party candidates are owned by special interests, and if any of them gets into office, they will be serving those interests and not the general public.
“To understand how ridiculous the promises of change really are, one need only look at where the millions of dollars of campaign money come from. It would be wonderful if the media would inform the public, but that just doesn’t happen. Below are some facts about the candidates which might illuminate the reality behind their rhetoric.
“Giuliani has raised about $44.7 million and it represents many millions from the finance (about $8 million), law (about $3.2 million), real estate (about $3 million) and health/insurance (about $2 million) industries.
“Romney has raised about $44.5 million, much of it coming from the same finance, law, real estate, and health/pharmaceutical/insurance special interests.
“Ron Paul’s $18 million comes mostly from retirees with much smaller amounts from the traditional big special interests. But it is important to note that he has received large contributions from the Defense Department, the Navy, the Army, the NRA, and the Gun Owners of America.
“Fred Thompson is a former lobbyist himself. He has raised about $12.8 million with large amounts coming from the law, real estate, business, and financial industries.
“John McCain’s $5 or so million represents huge amounts from law, finance, real estate, and health. Additionally, he has gotten about $300,000 directly from lobbyists themselves.
“Mike Huckabee’s $2.3 million includes hundreds of thousands from the same industries: real estate, law, finance, health, business.
“The picture on the Democratic side is no better, and surprisingly, the names of the big contributors don’t change all that much.
“Hillary Clinton has raised over $172 million: $16 million from the law industry, $11 million from finance, $7 million from real estate, $4.2 million from the health/insurance businesses, and over $1 million directly from lobbyists.
“Barack Obama has raised $94.5 million of which $10 million comes from lawyers, $8.4 million from financial interests, $3 million from real estate, and a whopping $2.7 million from educational interests (Harvard, the University of Chicago, the University of California, etc.). Companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Lehman Bros. have each contributed many hundreds of thousands of dollars to him.
“John Edwards has raised about $57 million with over $20 million of that coming from the law industry. To Edwards’ credit, his largest contributor by far has been ActBlue which represents mostly individuals (about $2 million). His next largest donor is Goldman Sachs (about $225,000).
“Dennis Kucinich’s $12.2 million comes from individuals and a host of labor unions. Nearly all his large donors are unions (UAW, Machinists/Aerospace Workers, Teamsters, CWA, United Steelworkers, and so on). Of all the candidates running, Kucinich probably has the closest fiscal connection to ordinary people.
“And finally, there is our very own Phil English who has raised $9.2 million, many hundreds of thousands of which have come from the health/pharmaceutical/insurance triumvirate, as well as the law and finance industries. Additionally, English has accepted about $130,000 directly from lobbyists.
“The point is this,” Porter concluded. “If the voters think that these candidates—particularly those who are beholden to the major financial, real estate, legal, insurance, business, and health/insurance special interests—are going to work for the average citizen before they work for the special interests, the voters are delusional.
“NO SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE IN ANYTHING FROM WAR TO TAXATION, FROM HEALTH CARE TO THE SOLVENCY OF SOCIAL SECURITY, FROM GLOBAL WARMING TO JOB OUTSOURCING IS GOING TO OCCUR UNTIL THE SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY IS TAKEN OUT OF ELECTIONS—UNTIL ELECTIONS ARE PUBLICLY FUNDED.
“NOTHING THE MAJOR PARTY CANDIDATES SAY IN ORDER TO GET ELECTED IS GOING TO ALTER THAT EQUATION.
“It is way past time for the media to inform the people of this reality and for the people to wake up to it.”
(The dollar figures above represent mostly career profiles and were obtained from www.opensecrets.org.)
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