Obama Wanted Earmarks For Wife's Hospital, Fundraiser's Firm

Media outlets have begun digging into Barack Obama's 2005 and 2006 earmark requests. Obama released them yesterday, and challenged Hillary Clinton to do the same. The New York Times reports:

His campaign's list said the senator had secured $1.3 million of an $8 million request in 2006 for a high-explosive technology program for the Army's Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The list said the program was overseen by General Dynamics.

One of Mr. Obama's top supporters, James S. Crown, serves on the board of General Dynamics, a military contractor. Mr. Crown is a member of Mr. Obama's national finance committee.

Mr. Obama also secured $750,000 of a $3 million request for renovation of a space center named for Mr. Crown's grandfather, Henry Crown, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

In addition to the University of Illinois, Mr. Obama secured several million dollars for a project at Chicago State University. Emil Jones Jr., the president of the Illinois State Senate and an early and powerful political benefactor of Mr. Obama's, has been a dogged champion of Chicago State, and one of Senator Obama's closest friends. A Chicago businessman, James Reynolds, sits on its board.

But Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said these requests had all been considered worthwhile by the senator's staff, and that Mr. Obama never discussed any of them with Mr. Crown, Mr. Jones or Mr. Reynolds.

Also: "In among them was a request for $1 million in federal funding in 2006 for a new pavilion at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where his wife, Michelle Obama, was a vice president at the time. The request was not ultimately included when Congress passed spending legislation that year, according to the Obama campaign."

***
Read a HuffPost blog by Barack Obama

Comments

[December7]

Good for all the people being treated at Chicago hospital, I am sure they are most grateful for whatever reason they got the funding from.

[nick1936]

Earmarks Good or Bad mostly good replace beach sand raise homes above the flood plain BAD bridge to nowhere an interchange in Florida that helps Senator's stevens developer pal and the Senator is from Alaska go figure

[Rhouse]

Forgive me but, "Spare change we can believe in - all the way to the bank."

[flyguy14222]

Hey, I like that one!

[patriotscholar]

Where are Hillary's tax records? Where are the white house documents? Where are any disclosures on her part? What about the new scandal about credit card contributions being taken from people without their knowledge? It continues, on and on.

[Susan1968]

Obama has refunded $797,978 in campaign contributions. See:

http://opensecrets.org/pres08/expend_detail.asp?id=N00009638&code=R90&cycle=2008&descrip=Contrib+Refunds

Sometimes people make multiple contributions not realizing they went over the $2400. Campaigns then refund them.

I have already found info that proves Kathy Callahan's "online diary" story (which is being reposted by news sites when it's all hearsay) is bull.

She claims she had to beg for her money back "on Christmas Eve" in one lump sum. Records show she received multiple refunds 11/2 through 12/18:

Callahan, Kathy
Ridgefield, NJ
$1,200
11/2/2007
Refund

Callahan, Kathy
Ridgefield, NJ
$1,800
12/3/2007
Refund

Callahan, Kathy
Ridgefield, NJ
$2,300
12/18/2007
Refund

Callahan, Kathy
Ridgefield, NJ
$500
12/18/2007
Refund


http://opensecrets.org/pres08/expend_detail.asp?ID=N00000019&cycle=2008&code=R90&Page=5

[Rhouse]

And yet is unable to return/give to charity all of the Rezko donations, which now appears to be alot more than he originally said there were.

[flyguy14222]

More of this puhleeze. Pbama throws you a bone w/ 2yrs of tax returns and you've turned into a monster!

[Susan1968]

If the media has just "begun" to dig in on Obama's past, all they had to do was google Obama on each issue and they would have found articles dating back 5 to 6 years. Once Obama got into the US senate he used earmarks to pay back ALL his Chicago buddies. Big time. Read this article:

Jones had served in the Illinois Legislature for three decades. He represented a district on the Chicago South Side not far from Obama's.

He became Obama's ­kingmaker.

Several months before Obama announced his U.S. Senate bid, Jones called his old friend Cliff Kelley, a former Chicago alderman who now hosts the city's most popular black call-in radio ­program.

I called Kelley last week and he recollected the private conversation as follows:

"He said, 'Cliff, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator.'"

"Oh, you are? Who might that be?"

"Barack Obama."

Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.

"I took all the beatings and insults and endured all the racist comments over the years from nasty Republican committee chairmen," State Senator Rickey Hendon, the original sponsor of landmark racial profiling and videotaped confession legislation yanked away by Jones and given to Obama, complained to me at the time. "Barack didn't have to endure any of it, yet, in the end, he got all the credit.

"I don't consider it bill jacking," Hendon told me. "But no one wants to carry the ball 99 yards all the way to the one-yard line, and then give it to the halfback who gets all the credit and the stats in the record book."

During his seventh and final year in the state Senate, Obama's stats soared. He sponsored a whopping 26 bills passed into law — including many he now cites in his presidential campaign when attacked as inexperienced.

It was a stunning achievement that started him on the path of national politics — and he couldn't have done it without Jones.

Before Obama ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, he was virtually unknown even in his own state. Polls showed fewer than 20 percent of Illinois voters had ever heard of Barack Obama.

Jones further helped raise Obama's profile by having him craft legislation addressing the day-to-day tragedies that dominated local news ­headlines.

I spoke to Jones earlier this week and he confirmed his conversation with Kelley, adding that he gave Obama the legislation because he believed in Obama's ability to negotiate with Democrats and Republicans on divisive issues.

So how has Obama repaid Jones?

Last June, to prove his commitment to government transparency, Obama released a comprehensive list of his earmark requests for fiscal year 2008. It comprised more than $300 million in pet projects for Illinois, including tens of millions for Jones's Senate district.

Shortly after Jones became Senate president, I remember asking his view on pork-barrel spending.

I'll never forget what he said:

"Some call it pork; I call it steak."


http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/print

[AdLib]

Show us how honest and fair-minded you are. Please list all of Hillary's earmarks and the connections they have to contributors to her campaign.

We're waiting...

[AnninCA]

It's public. Do your own research.

[AnotherAndy]

The moment you say what about Hillary, you lose the argument. The whole point of you Obamanics is that your guy is clean and pure, and as we now know, that isn't believable any more. So, look beyond the IMAGE, and you're left with an inexperienced opportunist with a shady past.

[foreffectivegovernment]

Accusing some one else of performing an act does not allow another person to commit the same act under our laws.

Using your logic, the crimes of Charles Manson would justify murder.

Telling Momma that Junior also broke a window does not absolve you of your responsibility if you broke a window.

There is proof that Senator Obama did these thing and are supported by his own reports regardless of whether anyone else did or not.

The only question in my mind is, were they illegal or immoral. If they were, he should take responsibility for them. If they were not then forget it.

[SShaw490]

Good grief. If you intend to elect any politican to be president, you're going to elect someone who has had some kind of interaction with influential people. I'd say that (1) 1.3 million for General Dynamics won't buy lunch over there; (2) an earmark for the biggest hospital in Chicago isn't exactly hard to understand. When St. Francis of Assissi runs for president, you'll have a better chance of electing someone who has never done anything like that. For that matter, giving money to valid causes is what the government is SUPPOSED to do. A Senator who won't get money set aside for projects to develop better armor for military vehicles and hospitals in his state isn't much of a Senator.

Get over it. It's ridiculous to bring trifles like that up.

[ozamerican]

Agreed. The question isn't that he supported these earmarks, but why on earth any politician shouldn't have.

And you're right about General Dynamics. As someone who's worked for federal contractors for more than 25 years, I can assure that $1.3 million is nothing, and would get rounded out in most budgets. It's hardly enough to buy influence. Sheesh!

[gplaw]

People please review the earmarks for yourself. Do not listen to Ms. Sweet.

[PKSSK]

Many GOP trolls all over this site, see below!

[nazirmo]

As I have written about in my books, I first joined Trinity United Church of Christ nearly twenty years ago. I knew Rev. Wright as someone who served this nation with honor as a United States Marine, as a respected biblical scholar, and as someone who taught or lectured at seminaries across the country, from Union Theological Seminary to the University of Chicago. He also led a diverse congregation that was and still is a pillar of the South Side and the entire city of Chicago. It's a congregation that does not merely preach social justice but acts it out each day, through ministries ranging from housing the homeless to reaching out to those with HIV/AIDS.

Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.

OK . So let it get right. 20 years you have known the preacher and had enough times to go listen to him speak when you went to the church. And you are claiming that you never got to listen to those bad comments from your preacher. How can one take your word on this ? It simply does not make any sense to me. You say that he has not been your political advisor but a pastor. If you are so good at leadership and knowing right from wrong then how come you failed to get the feel of your pastor ( his profile and teachings ) long ago ? You blame Hillary for authorizing the Iraq war - you attribute it to her lack of leadership skills. On the other hand here you have been going to a church for 20 years and you are saying that you never listened to your preachers wrong sermons. Give me a break. It must be a fairy tale.

[SShaw490]

The man has been speaking from the pulpit for 40 years - It's absurd to think Barack Obama has vetted everything he's said, or that Obama automatically agreed with everything he has said. For that matter, my pastor is my best friend and has been for 10 years; and I'm certain I could put together at least 30 minutes of tape of his statements that I disagree with, and lots of other people would disagree with.

This is the kind of thing that people who already hate Barack will use to hate him more. That's all. It's not a worry - Barack lost those votes a long time ago anyway. The good news is, no matter how much you hate him, you only get one vote to use against him.

[AdLib]

My policy is to ignore all posts from racists and anti-semites who use "nazi" in their user name.

Hope most others will do the same.

[rzan]

Thank you for the tip.

[itmaybetoolate]

Rome will burn and mcbush will be elected while we fiddle around...

[camanoone]

You Obamaidiots have already guarenteed a McCain victory. You chose to vilify Hilliary instead of attacking Bush/McCain and the genie is out of the jug. All McCain needs to do is hide out till November and he will be elected and serve George Bush's third term. Between this site and the clowns at Air America you hav destroyed the democrats chances of a November victory

[itmaybetoolate]

I don't support Obama or Hillary, but I do support a democrat in the white house. I now consider myself an independent. So, the infighting has to stop and we have to get down to business.

[MissingAmerica]

I've visited that museum, and it's really quite interesting.

Our troops are in Iraq, and anything they can do to a vehicle to help secure the safety of our troops, I'm for it -- although my preferential safety device is withdrawal!

As for the hospital, Chicago is a major city, and the medical facilities there are top notch, so I don't object to earmarking money to build a hospital wing, no matter who works there.

The earmarks I resent are GOP millions to build Stevens' Bridge to Nowhere, and the GOP request to fund that fanciful, pathetically ignorant Creationism Museum.

It's not the earmarks that matter; it's the purpose.

[PKSSK]

The Chigcago Sun Times is owned by Murdoch/Fox News. Lynn Sweet, a right wing journalist, has been out to get Obama for a reason, can anyone guess why she is biased to Clinton...need I say more.

[flyguy14222]

Oh brother...thought it wouldn't be long until that came up. I think Obama has worn that one out.

[2008andbeyond]

Stay outta the Hills. The truth does not seem to reach you folks up there.

[flyguy14222]

That is just plain stupid now that I give it a second thought. You contend that NOW a white journaist cannot write about a black candidate? That has to be one of most absurd things I have read to date.

[2008andbeyond]

You are proof that Clinton supporters only see race and gender. What is the obsession? Can you talk about the candidates without bringing either up?

The above post is saying that the journalist supports HRC because she is the easier candidate for the GOP to defeat and because of Clinton's recent past closeness with Murdoch. Oh, and because at heart, she is one of them. Obama would actually give power back to the people; Corporations & lobbyists, regardless of leaning to the right or left, don't want that.

[ritenow]

Oh nooo! Did you just play the race card?

Heaven forbid our money is spent on something other than Iraq!

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

[PKSSK]

Did I hit a nerve flyguy14222!!!!!! It is known that you are a republ troll!!!!

[NC4Obama]

He helped pass transparency laws and ethics reform laws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Funding_Accountability_and_Transparency_Act_of_2006of_2006 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honest_Leadership_and_Open_Government_Act The new law will require lawmakers seeking targeted spending projects, or earmarks, to divulge their plans in advance. So he helped make and pass a bill that made people show their earmarks, and helped decrease corruption by increasing transparency.

[flyguy14222]

How does that change anything in the story?

[AnninCA]

Yeah, well he also worked on the federal campaign finance which he now has completely backed out on. *haha

That's her article: Political expediency.......very good

[Ermasdaughter]

Come on now, Lynn Sweet has been after Obama forever - she's been wasting her papers money looking for some substantial connection to Rezko and CAN'T FIND IT!!! This is hardly news... These records were voluntarily given, as were his tax returns. Where is Clinton's paperwork.....?

[flyguy14222]

That's a nice try...to deflect.

[sef2121]

TWO BIG DIFFERENCES: 1-Obama has been in the Senate for two years (his absentee rate of 40 percent in 2007 is not really being IN the Senate) and he has, yes, less earmarks. He has not been the best Senator, let's face it. He never held meetings in his SubCommittee, was the most absent member on Foreign Relations and voted pretty much the same as all the rest of the Dems, including HRC. 2-NY needed some more money during HRC's first term, why? well, lower Manhattan being completely destroyed comes to mind. Many of those earmarks that I remember hearing about as a resident there was about securing as much disaster relief as possible and endlessly trying to secure more money for health care, NY arts and other important causes. Is there some crap on there, maybe, but that goes for all earmarks. Please people, Illinois and NY are different states and, for the past eight years, have and different needs. HRC has been a WONDERFUL Senator and will be a wonderful president. Obama, well, we really don't know how he will be considering he has never taken a stance or committed himself to anything in his political life.

[snowcat]

Since taking office in 2001, Clinton has delivered $500 million worth of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. About 64% of those corporations provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by employees, executives, board members or lobbyists, a review by the Los Angeles Times http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/hillary-clinton-lands-ear_n_76048.html8.html

[snowcat]

Obama adheres to a policy of using them only to support public entities.

[2008andbeyond]

You may want to sneak a peak at this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/hillary-clinton-lands-ear_n_76048.html

Or ask why she wanted $1M in tax payer money for a Woodstock museum. What do these have to do with rebuilding lower Manhattan?

[AnninCA]

So? Is Bill taking a salary from there?

[cybersense]

Instead of coping everything from Huffpost, try looking up real data.

[sonofsamstone]

not to quibble, but.....COMPLETELY DESTROYED? that might be a bit of an exaggeration. I don't want to diminish the tragedy, but let's not resort to hyperbole here either. Even New Orleans wasn't COMPLETELY DESTROYED during Katrina, and the destruction there was far worse than what NY saw on 9/11.

[biglover]

He has been in the Senate 3 years not 2. Do not diminish his service.

[ginamc]

Let's see... he was elected in 2004. Started in 2005. Began lobbying to be President in 2006. Was a NOBODY, did NOTHING, was an INEFFECTIVE Senator. And, ran for President in 2007. Add it up -- 2 years of NOTHING. You BO robots are not only gullible babies, but you can't even do simple arithmetic.

[LordKelvin]

Indeed, then he must have voted "PRESENT" more times than he or you would acknowledged .

COGITO, ERGO SUM.

[snowcat]

The same LYNN SWEET who was on every network for the last few days as an "objective" reporter BLAMING Obama himself for keeping the FERRARO comments in the news. She said it over and over again on every show. "The only reason anyone is talking about Geraldine Ferraro is because Obama keeps bringing it up to the media!, if he stopped, it would go away! This of course while FERRARO herself either preceded her or followed her on the same networks mouthing off and making and keeping HERSELF in the news with more racist comments!

I question Ms. Sweets motives and look forward to her dissection of Hillary's ethics regarding Earmarks and other issues.

Hillary Clinton Lands Earmarks For Campaign Contributions
It's a real estate developer's sugar-plum dream: a mega-shopping mall complete with 10 Broadway-style theaters, an indoor river, a Tuscan village and a 39-story luxury hotel sheathed in green solar panels shaped like giant blades of grass. Plus as much as $1 billion in government-backed financing, thanks in part to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton....
...Since taking office in 2001, Clinton has delivered $500 million worth of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. About 64% of those corporations provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by employees, executives, board members or lobbyists, a review by the Los Angeles Times shows.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/hillary-clinton-lands-ear_n_76048.html

Pastor Got $1.5 Million in Clinton Earmarks Before EndorsementBy Kathy Miller | The Hillary Project
By: Fred Lucas
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) secured more than $1 million in federal funding last year for a Harlem-based non-profit whose leader gave her presidential campaign a major endorsement last weekend.
http://www.hillaryproject.com/index.php?/en/story-details/pastor_got_15_million_in_clinton_earmarks_befor

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of special projects for her home state of New York in last year's spending bills, according to a new study by a government watchdog group.
The figure places her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, said the group, Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Working in nearly every case with New York colleagues, Clinton supported almost four times as much spending on earmarked projects as her rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, whose $91 million total placed him in the bottom quarter of senators who seek earmarks, the study showed.

ETHICS??
Daily Kos:
Have any of her Democratic opponents, including Obama, sought more detailed answers from her about stories such as:

* Norman Hsu and his bundling of money for her campaign?

* How "dishwashers, waiters and others" poured "$1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury?"

* Bill's trip to Kazakhstan with Canadian magnate, Frank Giustra, that netted Giustra $3 billion and Bill's foundation a $131 million contribution from Giustra?

* How powerful foreign donors to Bill's presidential library, such as the Saudis, may pose a serious conflict of interest to Hillary's foreign policy actions as president?

* How Bill's tangled ties to an investment concern of Clinton friend, Ron Burkle, and it's dealings with Dubai may yet, again, threaten to compromise Hillary Clinton's execution of foreign policy as president?

* The fact that the with all of these questionable financial dealings, the Clintons have been unwilling to release their tax returns, especially in light of Hillary Clinton claiming that the $5 million she lent the campaign was "her own money?"

Hillary refused to acknowledge – publicly or in print – the woman who in essence wrote her 1996 book, "It Takes a Village."
Whitewater, Travel gate, File gate, ties to Saudis, China, Rezko, and all the many other gates………..

AND LET’S NOT FORGET

The Clinton Playbook: from the man she admires and did her thesis on ..the same thesis she and Bill have tried to block access to like her Whitehouse phone and schedule records….

"Personalize it"
Saul Alinsky's rules of power tactics, excerpted from his 1971 book "Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals"
1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
2. Never go outside the experience of your people.
3. Whenever possible go outside the experience of the enemy.
4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
8. Keep the pressure on.
9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
10. Maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.
12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388372/

[2008andbeyond]

Your first point is right on. The Daily Show was making fun of Ferraro last night, as she said something about dropping out of the campaign so the media would have to drop the story... right before going on almost every network to defend herself and blame Barack's campaign for everything.

[biglover]

AnninCA - did you get that?????