Adelson
Last night on NBC, Michael Isikoff did a good piece on the new terrain in campaign finance since the disastrous Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. He focused on Super PACs, which help out a candidate unofficially and can collect unlimited contributions. One such PAC, called Restore Our Future, is raising money for Mitt Romney’s campaign and has gotten $2 million from “Steven Lund, a leader of the Mormon church.” Lund is a businessman who’s made his money in cosmetics.
Then Isikoff mentioned Sheldon Adelson’s bigtime support for Newt Gingrich, and failed to say anything about Adelson’s greater Israel agenda. It’s not the first time. Here is a long report Isikoff did on Adelson last spring, without a word about Israel!
Thank god for Amy Goodman. From Democracy Now! today (11:21):
[From the Democracy Now release on the show:]
Greg Gordon, an investigative reporter for McClatchy Newspapers who has been following the Gingrich campaign’s finances, discussed one of Gingrich’s latest beacons of support: Sheldon Adelson.
[These are Gordon’s first words:] “Sheldon Adelson is a rabidly pro-Israel donor and he operates two of the most elite casinos in Las Vegas: The Pallazzo and the Venetian. And he is also listed by Forbes as the 16th wealthiest person on the planet. Mr. Adelson is a huge backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he in fact publishes a free newspaper that circulates in Israel that basically is an extra voice to boost the Israeli Prime Minister. Gingrich and Adelson have been friends for quite a while and Gingrich is a big booster of Netanyahu as well. And perhaps it is no surprise, after all these donations from Adelson–totaling 7.65 million–that Gingrich has recently…talked about the Palestinian people as an ‘invented people,’ and he talked about moving the [US] embassy on his first day in office…from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would be an extremely provocative move to make in the Middle East,” Gordon said. “According to Politico…[Adelson] is planning to put $20 million into these Super PACs that support Newt Gingrich.”
Peter Stone, of the Center for Public Integrity, echoed Gordon’s findings on Adelson and the Gingrich campaign.
When the hell people realise one of the simplest thing: if you take big bucks from somebody, for nothing ,of course there are strings attached.
All those “politicians” ,”wanna be presidents” supported by rich millio/billio/trillio/ners are going to dance to the music played be their generous ,Big, Almighty Bosses.
Basically it is called a corruption, and from a little what I know, it is considered illegal??
Unless we call it a “gift exchange” or “return of a favour”??
dumvita:
It should be illegal, but (bless their twisted hearts) USA’s politicians have made contributions to campaign finance pools for wouldbe elected officials a form of protected “speech”. More legal even than pedestrians crossing at a green light.
Even if the contributions are large. And even if they are NOT anonymous (so that, as you say, strings can be attached).
In other circumstances, gifts to politicians are considered bribes and folks go to jail for making or accepting them. The fiction is that the politicians do not act (or alter their actions) as a result of receiving these gifts, they just vote their consciences!
i don’t care how much you throw at him, i find it incredibly hard to fathom the american people could place Gingrich in office.
the only possibility here, as i see it, it to indundate the press to the extent the public believes he has a chance and then steal another election. which is exactly why caucuses are do dangerous to a system of election/primary theft. you can’t steal em like you can an election controlled by the machine because the people are in the room.
watch out for upset primary newt victories in non caucus diebold states.