Does The Chamber Of Commerce Think South Dakota Is Small And Inexpensive Enough For Them To Buy?

Yesterday we talked a little about how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, virtually an arm of the Republican Party, occasionally endorses fake Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. And yesterday they added Georgia Blue Dog/New Dem corporate whore John Barrow to the list of disgrace that thus far includes Scott Peters (New Dem-CA), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA) and Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX). I wonder what they're waiting for to endorse Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY) and Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog/New Dem-AZ); their records are as putrid as Peters, in fact… even worse than Peters. One crook they didn't hesitate to endorse yesterday was predictable enough: South Dakota Big Business candidate for the open Senate seat, Mike Rounds. Rounds had plenty of opportunity to cozy up with the Chamber in the past-- and they are dying to see him in the Senate. Take a look at the video above about Rounds' growing EB-5 scandal, all part of the cupture of corruption that has stunk up Rounds' political career-- making him even more attractive to the U.S. Chamber.

Last night the reform-minded candidate in the South Dakota Senate race, Rick Weiland, called the Chamber a sham organization endorsing a sham candidate. His campaign wrote that "To some people, the U.S. Chamber name certainly might still sound good but anyone who has followed the organization over the past 20 years knows they long ago lost their way and their credibility when they sold out to major corporate Wall Street interests at the expense of small main street businesses. Today, the U.S. Chamber is nothing more than a front group and a mouthpiece for the biggest moneyed corporations in America. Nothing more. So, why should it be any surprise then that this group which lives off big money corporate interests would endorse Mike Rounds who owes his political life to big money corporate interests."

They even offered evidence: "Today the U.S. Chamber Board has 118 members-- 111 from large corporations, six members from small business and only one member from a local Chamber. And even some of the largest corporations in the U.S., citing extremist and dangerous views by the U.S. Chamber, have quit the organization. These companies include Nike and Apple. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their billionaire puppet masters including the Koch Brothers, who have invaded South Dakota, are the leading opponents of raising the Minimum Wage and they routinely support policy that benefits large corporations at the expense of small main street businesses. And to help their select big corporate backers, they have spent an average of $300,000 a day lobbying Congress to block meaningful reform in all areas of public policy. They are not pro-American jobs or pro-American business. They are pro-big corporation, pro-sending jobs overseas, and pro-tax shelters for big corporations in places like the Cayman Islands."

The Chamber has spent spent over a billion dollars lobbying Congress since 1998 and has spent many millions more handing out legalistic bribes to federal elected officials willing to shill for their partisan right-wing agenda. Rick Weiland doesn't run with that crowd and his whole campaign is based on curbing their power-grab. You can-- you should-- contribute to Rick's campaign here on the Blue America Senate page. The DSCC is too busy trying to prop up a bunch of failing campaigns for conservative Democrats in the South to give Rick any help at all. Rick is a populist and a small businessman. He knows as well as any ordinary America how damaging the pro-big money corporate agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is for small main street businesses in South Dakota-- and across America.