How to create a PermaGov 101.
July 31 (Bloomberg) — Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that’s home to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and Bush administration official Jay Lefkowitz, have given more to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than to all of the top Republican candidates combined.
They’re very clever. They have reasons.
“The Iraq war has a very significant pull on people, but it’s not just limited to that,” said Kirk Radke, a New York partner at Kirkland who is fundraising for Clinton. “There’s the need for a better posture within the international community.”
Maybe these guys really are concerned about Bush’s foreign policy but you can bet that they wouldn’t be donating to the Clintons if they didn’t think they are coming back into power. At best, they’d throw a little money their way to hedge their bets. But payback can be a bitch, and if they want to do business in a Clinton-run Washington, there is little matter of making amends for that impeachment thing.
This is how it works. It ain’t pretty.
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From the comments listed, there are some commercial reasons and more Federalist political views on the Constitution shunned by the Bush administration. Oh irony, for the SC decision of the Florida recount comes back to haunt. A shame so many people had to die for it as a result … Iraq and New Orleans as most prominent cases. I suppose the damage to International relations does hurt their pocketbook with clients in the EU and SE Asia.
Overall, lawyers in and out of large firms have given $18.3 million to Democrats Clinton, Obama and John Edwards, compared with $5.75 million to Republicans Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina and a trial lawyer, leads the pack, backed mainly by attorneys who sue on behalf of shareholders and individuals.
“The illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens” and the “self-aggrandizing claims of executive power” are influencing donations, said Abrams, a partner at New York’s Cahill Gordon & Reindel. “These are not the centrist views that used to attract the middle-of-the-road, often conservative lawyers.”
“There’s the need for a better posture within the international community.”
The shift to Democrats “has a lot to do with the war in Iraq, Guantanamo, torture” and controversies regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
“Lawyers are much more sensitive to civil liberties and our constitutional foundation and the rule of law.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Another constituency that they are losing badly.
Trial lawyers tend to support the Dems anyway. And many lawyers, probably most, are sympathetic to the Dems on issues of human rights.
But what explains right-wing firms throwing their money at Hillary Clinton? I think they are worried that a second Clinton presidency is likely and will be a problem for them.
Or a darker more sinister view is that support for Sen. Clinton is for a democrat candidate that will lose in November 2008. From my view point that is why Repulicans are already throwing mud at John Edwards.
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ABC/WaPo poll period July 26-31
Obama: 27
Clinton: 26
Edwards: 26
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."My, how the price of a letter of indulgence has gone up in the last 500 years!