Clark, Lytle, Geldudig & Cranford vs America

When I heard Chris Hayes breaking the news about former Boehner aides/sleazy DC lobbyists Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford are trying to undermine OccupyWallStreet on behalf of their bankster clients, the name struck a bell. That was the firm that has been working so hard and for so long to undermine... Elizabeth Warren. Four of Washington's most corrupt wheeler-dealers-- Steve Clark ("Ohio's most effective corporate lobbyist"), Gary Lytle (the one in charge of bribing the Blue Dogs and ConservaDems and bringing them along for the ride), Sam Geduldig ("knows how to kill legislative threats to his clients" which he learned while working for Boehner and career criminal Roy Blunt) and Jay Cranford (a former policy aide to Boehner)-- have funneled gigantic legalized bribes into the hands of right-wing Members of Congress. Here are just a few of the politicians who have gobbled up "contributions" each of these notorious sleazebags has given to buy Abramoff-like "access" for their clients:

Steve Clark- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Michael Turner (R-OH), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), John Shimkus (R-IL), Ed Whitfield (R-KY), Pete Sessions (R-TX).

Gary Lytle- Richard Burr (R-NC), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Steny Hoyer (Blue Dog mascot-MD), John Kline (R-MN), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Tom Price (R-GA), Dean Heller (R-NV), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Tom Latham (R-IA), Roy Blunt (R-MO). Dave Camp (R-MI), Evan Bayh (ConservaD- IN), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Mitt Romney (R-MA), John McCain (R-AZ- over $20,000 alone)

Sam Geduldig- over a quarter million dollars to right-wing PACs plus massive bribes to Boehner (R-OH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Dean Heller (R-NV), Pat Tiberi (R-OH), Rob Portman (R-OH), Dave Camp (R-MI), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Tom Price (R-GA), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), John Boozman (R-AR), Peter Roskam (R-IL), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), Denny Regberg (R-MT), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Sam Graves (R-MO), John McCain (R-AZ), Robert Dold (R-IL), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Roy Blunt (R-MO)

Jay Cranford- Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Mike Conaway (R-TX), Kenny Marchant (R-TX), Lord Boustany (R-LA), Rob Portman (R-OH), Richard Berg (R-ND), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Jim Renacci (R-OH)

According to the anti-corruption group, Public Campaign, the DC smear-meisters at Clark, Lytle, Geldudig & Cranford have been raking in millions of dollars from outfits eager to corrupt Congress, particularly the American Bankers Association, the US Chamber of Commerce, the Investment Company Institute, Verizon, and AT&T.

One of the proposals in the now infamous memo from the Clark, Lytle, Geldudig & Cranford sleazebags was to conduct almost a million dollars in "opposition research" against Democrats running in Senate races in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada. Interesting choice of races. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin are likely to stand strong against the 1% tactics of grabbing complete power in America. The other 5... their records show they much more pliable, even cowardly, especially conflicted "moderates" like Tim Kaine (VA) and Shelley Berkley (NV), neither much of a champion for the legitimate aspirations of the 99%, each praying that voters will elect them for the only conceivable reason anyone with an ounce of sense would vote for either-- the Republican is much worse. In fact, Berkley's opponent, corrupt Nevada politician is not just a right-wing extremist, he's also one of the most favored recipients of consistent bribes from the Abramoff-like crooks at Clark, Lytle, Geldudig & Cranford.

Greg Sargent writes that "there are two key takeaways" from this episode. "The first is that some allies of Wall Street firms see Occupy Wall Street as a potential long term political threat. The second is that they see the Democratic strategy of embracing the populist message of the protests as something that could work, rather than something that is an automatic negative for Dems, as conservatives keep proclaiming is the case." The lobbyists go on to try to extort money from the banksters by frightening them:

Leading Democratic party strategists have begun to openly discuss the benefits of embracing the growing and increasingly organized Occuy Wall Street (OWS) movement to prevent Republican gains in Congress and the White House next year. We have seen this process of adopting extreme positions and movements to increase base voer turnout, including in the 2005-2006 immigration debate. If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullsye.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the Democratic Party or even President Obama’s reelection team would campaign against Wall Street in this cycle. However the bigger concern should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street comapnies-- and might start running against them too.

Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. Both the radical left and the radical right are channeling broader frustration about the state of the economy and share a mutual anger over TARP and other perceived bailouts. This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millins of Americans making do with less this holday season.

Democratic strategists have identified the OWS movement as a way to tap this populist anger... they are certainly in the field right now testing messaging options and developing the plans to deploy them in ads, speeches, social media and grassroots communications as early as this year. The focus of those campaign efforts would be to tar the financial services sector-- and in particular high-profile Wall Street investment house brands-- as being responsible for the economic problems facing the country and middle class Americans.

The Reaction-- and if you've been reading Corey Robin's brilliant new book, The Reactionary Mind, you know that the sum total of conservative thought is NOTHING BUT reaction-- is sweeping in. No one's charging down Broadway on camels with whips yet... but it's early. Jason Barker (first comment in this NY Post story) is a reactionary fanatic who works at the Federal Reserve in New York. He's brazenly, publicly advocating violence against peaceful demonstrators. Guess which side he would have been on during the American Revolution!