Cory Booker Always Tries To Put His Donors First-- At Least When He Can Get Away With It

He's gone on to bigger and far better things now, but an old friend of mine used to work for corporate shill Cory Booker (D-NJ). Right after Booker was on CNN's State of the Nation Sunday indicating he's not onboard with the idea of impeaching Trump, my friend, the ex-staffer, called me and said that Booker has been in bed with the Kushner family for his whole career and that they've given him-- and helped him raise-- a fortune. Ivanka and Jared have even hosted fund-raising events for his campaigns. I tweeted what he told me and was immediately attacked from the peanut gallery demanding to see "proof." It would take another 24 hours for the kind of second-hand "proof" (scavenger sites like The Hill and Politico) slow-witted random Twitter followers want to see. So now it's "official." Although by Sunday evening David Sirota had already tweeted this for the skeptics:

click to read all about it

And I followed with a response to the weak post in The Hill:

Sirota's piece for the International Business Times must have made Booker wish he had never opened his trap about Kushner without disclosing the financial connections. Most Democrats who have had anything to say about Kushner's foibles are demanding his national security clearance be revoked, at least temporarily, 'til we figure out what the hell is going on. Not Booker. "Asked if supports revoking Kushner's security clearance," wrote Sirota, "the New Jersey senator said: 'I think we need to first get to the bottom of it. He needs to answer for what was happening at the time. It raises very serious concerns for me. And that could be a potential outcome that I seek, but I want to understand, at least hear from Jared Kushner, as well as the administration, about what was exactly going on there.' Booker also pushed back against those calling for Trump's impeachment, saying, 'I'm not going to rush to impeachment.'"

Kushner and other donors affiliated with Kushner Cos. delivered more than $41,000 to Booker's Senate campaign in 2013, according to data compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine.com. Politico reported that Ivanka Trump hosted a fundraiser for Booker during that election.

In 2009, Jared Kushner also gave $20,000 to Booker's Newark mayoral ticket "Booker Team for Newark," New Jersey campaign finance records show. That year, Booker attended the wedding of Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Booker has in the past made headlines taking stances at odds with others in his party. During the 2012 election, for instance, Booker defended the private equity industry and slammed Barack Obama's campaign for attacking then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital. More recently, Booker cast a pivotal vote against Democratic legislation to allow Americans to buy lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada.

He has a good voting record-- an "A" from ProgressivePunch-- but clearly fails leadership and political courage tests. Let's hope the media stops the silly babble of him being on anyone's presidential ticket.