Did You Get Into The Big AT&T Blue Dog Bash In Denver To Celebrate Retroactive Immunity For Telecom Executives?

Although one Blue Dog, Pennsylvania's anti-choice, homophobic reactionary Neocon, Chris Carney, says he won't be going to the historic Democratic Convention in Denver that will be nominating Barack Obama-- a man whose policies Carney will spend the rest of his wretched political life fighting-- many other Blue Dogs have indeed shown up in Denver. Sunday night progressive bloggers, Jane Hamsher, John Amato, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Stoller tried to infiltrate the huge bash AT&T threw for Blue Dogs who had taken their bribes and helped Bush push through retroactive immunity for criminal executives from AT&T and other telecom companies who had illegally spied on American citizens. Glenn has a description and video of the bloggers being stonewalled and harassed by the reactionary forces within the Democratic Party and their paid muscle.

Amazingly, not a single one of the 25-30 people we tried to interview would speak to us about who they were, how they got invited, what the party's purpose was, why they were attending, etc. One attendee said he was with an "energy company," and the other confessed she was affiliated with a "trade association," but that was the full extent of their willingness to describe themselves or this event. It was as though they knew they're part of a filthy and deeply corrupt process and were ashamed of -- or at least eager to conceal -- their involvement in it. After just a few minutes, the private security teams demanded that we leave, and when we refused and continued to stand in front trying to interview the reticent attendees, the Denver Police forced us to move further and further away until finally we were unable to approach any more of the arriving guests.

It was really the perfect symbol for how the Beltway political system functions-- those who dictate the nation's laws (the largest corporations and their lobbyists) cavorting in total secrecy with those who are elected to write those laws (members of Congress), while completely prohibiting the public from having any access to and knowledge of-- let alone involvement in-- what they are doing. And all of this was arranged by the corporation-- AT&T-- that is paying for a substantial part of the Democratic National Convention with millions upon millions of dollars, which just received an extraordinary gift of retroactive amnesty from the Congress controlled by that party, whose logo is splattered throughout the city wherever the DNC logo appears-- virtually attached to it-- all taking place next to the stadium where the Democratic presidential nominee, claiming he will cleanse the Beltway of corporate and lobbying influences, will accept the nomination on Thursday night.

AT&T has also given more money to federal elected officials than any other single company in America, $39,502,961 since 1990, most of it to Republicans. So far this year they have "donated" $3,084,061, 59% of it to Republicans. Mostly of the money went to PACs.

Obviously the #1 recipient of AT&T bribes this year has been McCain, but leaving presidential candidates out of this, the biggest targets of their "generosity" in Congress were that fount of corruption, Democratic Party boss Rahm Emanuel (D-IL- $48,950) and "Mr. Retroactive Immunity," Jay Rockefeller (D-WV- $22,000). But right up there with some of the most odious far right Republican stooges, like Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL- $11,000) and Michael McCaul (R-TX- $10,500) were the Blue Dog scum and fellow travelers who joined the GOP to pass the FISA bill giving immunity from prosecution to the AT&T executives:

Brad Ellsworth (D-IN- $15,000)
Joe Baca (D-CA- $10,000)
Marion Berry (D- AR- $10,000)
Leonard Boswell (D-IA- $10,000)
Lincoln Davis (D-TN- $10,000)
Joe Donnelly (D-IN- $10,000)
Jim Matheson (D-UT- $10,000)
Dennis Moore (D-KS- $10,000)
Zach Space (D-OH- $10,000)
John Tanner (D-TN- $10,000)
Baron Hill (D-IN- $9,750)
Mike Ross (D-AR- $9,250)
Melissa Bean (D-IL- $9,000)
Allen Boyd (D-FL- $9,000)
Charlie Melancon (D-LA- $9,000)
David Scott (D-GA- $9,000)
Heath Shuler (D-NC- $8,450)
John Barrow (D-GA- $8,000)
Artur Davis (D-AL- $8,000)
Jim Cooper (D-TN- $7,500)
Dan Boren (D-OK- $6,500)
Dennis Cardoza (D-CA- $6,000)
Jim Costa (D-CA- $6,000)
Chet Edwards (D-TX- $5,000)
Dan Lipinksi (D-IL- $5,000)
Edolphus Towns (D-NY- $5,000)
Nick Lampson (D-TX- $4,500)
Adam Schiff (D-CA- $3,000)

AT&T was also able to funnel money to Blue Dogs through the Blue Dog PAC which then laundered it out to individual Blue Dogs in $10,000 increments through PACs belonging to members like Melissa Bean, Allen Boyd, Adam Schiff, Marion Berry, Jane Harman, Leonard Boswell, John Tanner, Mike Ross, Earl Pomeroy, David Scott, Dennis Cardoza, etc.

Our blogger colleagues were unable to ascertain which Blue Dogs were availing themselves of AT&T's hospitality (which included a performance by Scottish singer KT Tunstall) in Denver before they were chased away from the entrance. This morning I couldn't get a single congressional office of a single Blue Dog to admit that he or she attended the AT&T Blue Dog celebration in Denver but I did hear from an authoritative source that Allen Boyd, Melissa Bean and John Tanner were at the event. Nor was I able to ascertain whether or not Carney-- who's entire re-election campaign is an outreach to Republicans-- will be in St Paul for the Republican convention.

Since Jane, John, Matt and Glenn missed the party, this is for them-- and for any DWT readers in Denver who didn't get into the AT&T Blue Dog bash Sunday night: