If you haven’t had a chance to read the Double G this week over in Salon, you really should. Glenn Greenwald picked up a disturbing image of, of all things, the DNC convention swag bag…complete with the big shiny AT&T logo on the side.
What’s most striking about the Convention bag — aside, of course, from its stunning design — is how the parties no longer bother even trying to hide who it is who funds and sponsors them. But — an earnest citizen might object — just because AT&T is helping to pay for the Democrats’ convention and having its logo plastered all over it the way a ranch owner brands his cattle doesn’t mean that they will receive any special consideration when it comes time for Congress to debate and pass our nation’s laws.
Somewhere, Gilroy is laughing his ass off right now.
With regard to the important question, let’s hear from financier and lobbyist Steve Farber, the Chief Fundraiser for the Democratic National Convention:
Mr. Farber’s vast contact list could prove crucial in raising the millions of dollars needed by the Denver host committee to showcase Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in August in Denver. But Mr. Farber’s activities are a public display of how corporate connections fuel politics — exactly the type of special influence that Mr. Obama had pledged to expunge from politics when he said he would not accept donations from lobbyists. . . .
Yet, as Mr. Farber hops on planes, hosts breakfasts and pulls out the stops, he at least can draw on the resources of his law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, one of the fastest-growing lobbying shops in Washington and one of the most powerful firms in the West, thanks to some recent strategic mergers that have only fattened his roster of blue-chip corporate clients.
“Steve Farber is involved with a lot of high-level candidates and ones who have won,” said Floyd Ciruli, head of Ciruli Associates, a Denver political consulting firm. “He’s famous for hiring ex-politicians, their children and ex-judges. He’s very good at making connections with people who have access to politicians” . . . .
As a result of Mr. Farber’s efforts, dozens of organizations have signed up as corporate sponsors of the Denver convention, including six that are lobbying clients of his firm: UnitedHealth Group, AT&T, Comcast, the National Association of Home Builders, Western Union and Google. In return for these donations, which can go up to $1 million or more, sponsors are promised prominent display space for corporate marketing and access to elected officials and Democratic leaders at a large number of parties and receptions.
Mr. Farber is now going through his client list — and also approaching nonclients — in his search for cash. Conventions are one of the last remaining ways for corporations to put big money into politics, since they are banned from giving directly to candidates and parties.
Even more, corporations can give unlimited amounts of money to host committees, in contrast to individuals who are restricted in the size of their political donations. Corporations can also take a tax deduction on their donations to the host committee, but individuals are barred from deducting political contributions.
“Farber has a dual role,” said Steve Weissman, a policy analyst at the Campaign Finance Institute who has studied convention finances. “He is a businessman and a community activist, and yet he is connected to a law firm that is one of the biggest in Washington. When any of Steve Farber’s clients have a problem, federal elected officials will feel obligated to listen to him if he approaches them later on federal policy interests.”
Although he is a Democrat, Mr. Farber’s firm draws political talent from both sides of the aisle. Its lobbyists include Jim Nicholson, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; former Senator Hank Brown, Republican of Colorado; and Judy Black, wife of Charlie Black, Senator John McCain’s chief adviser, and a major bundler of donations for Mr. McCain.
Let’s be honest about the Obama Administration. Barring some horrific unforseen event, he’s going to win. But so are a lot of the same people that have allowed FISA and wiretapping and the PATRIOT Act and all the rest of the slow dismantling of the Constitution to take place. There’s too much shit there to clean up in just four years, not with the elephants and donkeys responsible for creating aforementioned fecal matter still in charge of the zoo. I’ll admit that. But Obama has to start cleaning up, or America is not going to make it.
That was a damn pretty speech he gave in Berlin Thursday. It didn’t say very much about fixing fascist police states, however.
Yes, Obama is better than Bush. No, that’s not a very lofty target, something like “Well, being drawn and quartered isn’t as bad as terrorists riding nukeular powered magma breathing land sharks loose in a hospital nursery.”
Obama still has a lot of uncomfortable questions to answer, and “Yeah, he’s playing the centrist to win the general election and to have the longest possible coattails effect” does not sufficiently answer the question of “What are you going to do to restore the fucking Constitution after Bush used it for toilet paper?”
Let’s recall that the Democrats we want to re-elect for the most part are the same folks that have allowed Bush to wreck the laws of the land at every given opportunity. At the very least they are his accomplices, and while the GOP needs to be purged, the current crop of Democrats need to be shown the door, starting with Nancy and Harry.
Booman asked what the Frogpond thought Obama’s top administrative priorities should be. My answer? Restore the entire US Constitution, starting with the First Fucking Amendment.
Nothing else really matters if we don’t start there.