As Republicans gather in Tampa this week, they've got a bit of a problem: figuring out how to wine, dine, and celebrate their sugar daddies in style without ripping back the veil of secrecy they've drawn over their super-wealthy backers.
Pulling off such a stunt will be especially difficult right now. While the Romney Campaign still refuses to disclose its big money bundlers -- even though the Obama campaign has -- USA TODAY managed to ferret out a list. It turns out that fully 25 percent of these bag men come from the financial sector, which the American public rates as the second worst in the country, barely edging out the oil and gas industry.
To make matters worse, this summer was so packed with banking scandals that the independent investigative journalists at ProPublica put out a scorecard to keep track of the perpetrators (Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank and more), crimes, victims, and investigations. No wonder Romney wants to keep his relationships to these folks under wraps.
Unfortunately for Mitt, they seem to be outing themselves. Just last week one of them stepped onto the op-ed pages of The New York Times to sing the praises of the "too big to fail" banks: William B. Harrison Jr.
Until recently, the job of banker shill-in-chief would have gone to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, but he'd just seen his reputation beached by the "London Whale" scandal. Instead, the honor fell to Harrison, the CEO who preceded Dimon at JPMorgan, and one of Mitt Romney's secret banker bundlers.
Maybe the Wall Street lobby figured that dusting off the former CEO would inoculate JPMorgan from association with current scandals. After all, it was Dimon, not Harrison, who was at the helm when JP Morgan joined the ranks of what the Times calls repeat violators -- those mega-banks that paid billions of dollars to settle fraud cases in the wake of the 2008 crisis, only to re-offend in short order. As the Times put it, "Nearly all of the biggest financial companies, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America among them, have settled fraud cases by promising the S.E.C. that they would never again violate an antifraud law, only to do it again in another case a few years later."
JPMorgan's rap sheet includes, for example: purposeful or negligent fraud in interstate commerce (initial plus three repeat offenses) and purposeful fraud by securities firms (initial plus one repeat offense).
These offenses are documented by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here's one example from the SEC's files:
Harrison, of course, was gone by then, so we can't pin this wave of crimes on him. But he was at the helm of the bank during the previous litany of major banking and accounting scandals.
Before becoming President and CEO of JPMorgan Chase after Chase Manhattan merged with JPMorgan, Harrison was Chase Manhattan's President and CEO after having served as Vice Chairman at Chemical Bank since 1990 (prior to its takeover of Chase in 1996). His stint covered the period in the late '90s and into the early 2000s that witnessed the Enron, Tyco, Worldcom and other scandals. Here's how one journalist characterized his bank:
Name a scandal-plagued US company in the headlines and one bank keeps showing up behind the scenes: JP Morgan Chase. Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco International and Kmart are among the troubled clients of America's second largest bank -- formed last year by the historic combination of two of the oldest names in the U.S. financial world, JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan.
Giant banks, giant scandals. And giant checks for Mitt Romney -- who has pledged not only to repeal the laws passed in the wake of the 2008 Wall Street scandals (Dodd-Frank), but also to repeal or weaken those put in place after the scandals in which Harrison was enmeshed (Sarbanes-Oxley). Bring out the champagne!
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Big banks, committing crimes, telling the SEC, "we won't do it again" and then "do it again." And they're supporting Romney/Ryan. Hmmmm.
Banks are in it for Banks, I think that's fair to say, and Romney/Ryan is their ticket to easy street. Any law that get's in their way of a profit, will be gone courtesy of Romney/Ryan .
Just think of it, Banks will be able to chart their own course. Make their own rules, and no one to stop them. Not the SEC, you, me. Nobody.
Unless of course, President Obama wins a second term, and Democrats take the House, and win more seats in the Senate - then more legislation will be enacted, to give more rights to the American public. The American public who is at the mercy of his or her bank.
Have settled. Past tense. Yet the author makes a lot of hay about all their support for Romney... who is not now, nor has been, President. Not any mention here of the CURRENT President, whose administration has given all the bankers a pass, and who was the recipient of most of their donations in the last election, especially Goldman Sachs.
If you want to knock Romney for being exactly as corrupt as Obama, you might mention the facts:
"In the 2008 presidential campaign, Democratic candidates, especially Barack Obama, raked in major campaign donations from Wall Street, pulling in $71 million—$10 million more than Republicans. Obama himself counted Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and the Swiss banking giant UBS among his top donors."
That said, it wouldn't be fair to compare Obama with Romney who acquired his entire fortune robbing worker pension funds and who has demonstrated over and over he's got no qualms allowing corporate interests to prevail over greater public interest.
For four years republicans have been lamenting oppressive regulations. Translation: We want unfettered capitalism with no consumer protections. Let markets and business operate in any manner it chooses (it doesn't matter who gets hurt).
If that's the sort of economy you desire, no doubt, Romney and Ryan will deliver. Both seek to eliminate capital gains for the wealthiest among us, and their benefactors are banking on it.
Their benefactors also know, they'll have a direct line to the White House in R&R, with GOP and blue dog democrats in Congress ready and willing to provide corporate customer service; just ask and they will receive any regulation desired, legitimizing anything and everything, no matter how unsavory and unethical.
Think Congressional corporate entanglement is bad now? Let R&R demonstrate how it can get 1000 times worse and completely destroy the economy in the process.
That's a given. If you can be bought, you will be.
This is a shame. So what you are saying is that the sugar daddies that bankrolled and supported Obama in his 2008 campaign no longer want to double-down on failure and are now backing Romney. That is bad news. Just how bad must he be that no one wants to support him…except the usual bundlers, the unions, the green energy supporters, Hollywood subsidy receivers, etc. Why doesn’t he just appeal to all that astro-turf grass roots money that he claimed to get, that all came of the same credit cards or were remitted to his campaign from sequential accounts, etc.
Kai
There's our first mistske..trying to deal with Dems using facts. All they care about is perception. Keep em dumb and keep em distracted.
This article would have been a great place to highlight how the current President awarded his bundlers from 2008, maybe even get into some detail about stimulus funds, etc going their way. You wouldn't have to look very hard to find examples. Nah!!!!! Let's pretend this is a GOP thing and see if the drones buy it.
Uh, no. That dissolved along with the American Dream under the stream of tinkle-down economics.
www.opensecrets.org The Center For Responsive Politics, Obama, Donors and Bundlers/ Heavy Hitters.
www.opensecrets.org