Just Who Do These Rich Clinton Donors Think They Are?
The more I read about the rich donors who told Nancy Pelosi to shut up, the more angry I get. I may not agree with her on quite a few issues, but Speaker Pelosi is second in line to the presidency, the first woman to hold her position and a figure demanding of respect -- especially from people who are supposed to be her fellow Democrats. These guys seriously think that because they went to a fancy fundraiser or maybe played a round of golf with the ex-president that they really are better than the rest of us. They have every right to add their voice to the chorus supporting Sen. Clinton, but they have no place, no standing, no right to order the Speaker around.
These people are symptomatic, quite frankly, of the negative that came along with all the good President Clinton did during his tenure. The moribund liberal wing of the party, defanged after the losses of Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis, gave way to the big check writers, the elite crowd whose cash did prop up the party for the short term and helped President Clinton gain his office. But for the Democratic party and the progressive movement they have been a waste. Just look at the congressional seats lost during Clinton's tenure, look at how unprepared the party was to field a coast-to-coast slate of candidates under Terry McAuliffe's leadership -- a party chairmanship that was all about fundraising to the exclusion of getting majorities and a president elected.
But the Clintons and the moneybags crowd have not learned. That's why they tried to throw their money around in Michigan and re-do the primary. That's why the Clinton campaign is now faltering at fundraising, having maxed out these whales she doesn't have the pool of Average Joe donors (like myself) that Sen. Obama will have in the general who have not come close to the $2,300 limit. That's why, as their anointed candidate began to fail they just cut another of their fat checks to form a 527 committee whose work product is horrendous compared to the work of groups like MoveOn and the labor unions. Sure, wealthy donors help fund some of those efforts as well, but they are truly nothing without their regular Joe volunteers and members. And none of those groups is so in love with themselves that they believe that they can tell Speaker Pelosi what she can and cannot say.
We poor unwashed masses, lacking mansions and minks and chauffeurs, elected Rep. Pelosi to the position of Speaker via our representatives in the House. We may not have tee times at the golf club, a yacht parked on the intra coastal, nor do we feed our pets prime rib -- but we know that the Speaker is to be afforded a modicum of respect.
This is the stain that remains on the party even after the events of Crashing The Gate were documented by Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong. These are the hangers-on who look down their plastic surgery noses at Governor Dean's 50-state strategy and his middle class demeanor even as the party begins to regain its role as a truly national party. These are the people who think nothing -- nothing -- of throwing a tantrum because us people, us regular Joes and Janes, had the gall to not vote and caucus for the candidate they bankrolled and sought to shove down our gullets the way they always do. Instead we chose to vote for a candidate whose donor base is almost 2 million strong. Just like a couple of weeks ago when they were demanding refunds of their donations to the party they thought they owned they are once again trying to tell us they bought the Democratic Party the same way they bought a diamond necklace at Tiffany's for their trophy wife.
Not any more. The Democratic Party is once again becoming little-d democratic. A party where the rich guys have a say, but so do the regular guys. Speaker Pelosi speaks for us, from Park Avenue to Georgetown to Skid Row to Baltimore to The Lower 9th Ward and beyond.
And you respect her, or shut up.
[More coverage at OliverWillis.com]
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I don't know who they THINK they are - but I do know that this is who they really are - a list of the names who signed the letter to Pelosi -
Marc Aronchick
Clarence Avant
Susie Tompkins Buell
Sim Farar
Robert L. Johnson
Chris Korge
Marc and Cathy Lasry
Hassan Nemazee
Alan and Susan Patricof
JB Pritzker
Amy Rao
Lynn de Rothschild
Haim Saban
Bernard Schwartz
Stanley S. Shuman
Jay Snyder
Maureen White and Steven Rattner
Just a random sample of some of their profiles.:
Susie Tompkins Buell and Amy Rao speak every day, inevitably about politics. Buell is godmother to Rao's daughter.
Amy Rao, Founder & Chief Executive Officer Amy Rao founded IAS in June 1994 and serves as its CEO. In addition to her responsibilities as CEO, Amy devotes much of her time and energy to raising awareness around climate change, global warming and encouraging environmentally friendly habits in both the work place and home.
Haim Saban is an Israeli-American media-mogul, one of the biggest contributors to the campaigns of pro-Israel politicans in the U.S. and has been described as a "tireless cheerleader for http://www
Clarence Avant was named Chairman of Motown Records in 1993 and, four years later, he became the first African-American to serve on the International Management Board for Polygram. Today, Avant is president of his own publishing companies, Avant Garde and Interior Music Corp. Clarence Avant also serves a member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Pepsi-Cola African-American Advisory Board.
Jay Snyder is a member of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Snyder is also a principal of HBJ Investments, LLC, and Ashfield Consulting Group, a financial services firm.
Hassan Nemazee is a multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker.
Kind of puts things in perspective about our so called "democracy", eh?
Email addresses?
Now 2 NJ supporters have an on-line petition demanding Howard Dean seat the Michigan and Florida delegates or "show cause why they should not be reinstated and establish a mandate for two full revote primaries for June."
Both are big fundraisers and one was her NJ campaign co-chair.
Hillary Clinton -- the best candidate money can buy.
if you support pelosi's statements and oppose the transparent attempts by clinton fatcats to intimidate and strong-arm the democratic process, go to
http://pol
and sign MoveOn.org's petition in support of pelosi's statements regarding the democratic process
Oliver, excellent Post. The Clintons' lackeys are merely a manifestation of the corrupt mentality of the Clintons themselves who are naive to believe that the American Public do not see the total hypocrisy
of their failed plan to regain the Presidency with Hillary as the puppet for her philandering husband. Hopefully, for all concerned we will not have to revisit the Monica L. affair which obviously will be a distraction to the Democrats regaining the White House.
Is this an example of the "new civility" which Obama promises?
I sure hope not, I really do want a Democrat as President. I don't like this kicking around democratic candidates by democrats we will get enough of this when the winner takes on McBush.
It's interesting to note that the emergence of web-based campaigns has allowed large numbers of small donors to easily contribute to their candidates in an easy and low-key way. From all over the country we can give small amounts that now rival the clout of big donors.
Finally we the people, the $25 a pop folks, can influnce.
This is not a flash in the pan, it is set to become a bigger force with time. We can only hope that the undue impact of big donors is passing. Pelosi can certainly see this shift in power, as could Clinton if she were not so locked into the politics of peddling influence.
"all the good that Clinton did"? Please refresh my memory. Are you referring to the 500,000 Iraqi kids' lives taken by the sanctions that "we think are worth the price"? The conversion of the Democratic party into the reality-based wing of the Republican party? NAFTA? Welfare "reform"?
Well said.
Could someone please direct me to a list of who these donors are and what industries they represent.
They own the country, the rest of us are just renting.
We've decided to buy it back. They are no longer the money people, WE are!
Well...aft
Who do they think they are....fro
Hillary Clinton's big donors see their dreams of a Senate confirmation hearing and a post as Ambassador to the Bahamas dying before their very eyes, and so they are making threats.
These people are her base. They attend Bilderberg meetings in Europe, belong to the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. They are folks with enough money to see themselves as "Elites," better prepared to lead and more deserving of the rewards than the other 300,000,000 of Us!
Along with Dianne Feinstein, Joe Leiberman, and yes, Hillary Clinton, they represent the entitled , the privileged, and the powerful who want to see the war continue, deregulation accelerated, and the Patriot Act made permanent. They are globalists with a one world agenda; to create an oligarchy of the Ultra-Wealthy where the voice of the people is never heard. They don't play by the rules--they make their own and are used to winning. With this move, their masks are off, and what you see is what Hillary will give them if this rip off is allowed to happen.
NOW we know who "The Family" members are!
I can haz link pleez?
Opps, someone forgot to tell the Clintons and their big money donors that there is a New Charismatic Leader on the Democratic Block and his name is Barack Obama whose leadership is supported by more than 2,000,000 small donors. We small donors have been the fuel for the O-Train and will be with him even after he takes his oath of office in Jan 2009.
The time to be afraid of rich and big donors has gone because it is Obama-Time
I was raising money for my congresswoman in NYC last fall. Since I went to college with one of the authors of this letter to Pelosi and I knew him to be a big Democratic donor, I asked the professional fund raiser who was helping me to organize my event if she could get word to this big donor that one of his college classmates was hosting an event for a Democratic Congresswoman. The response I got from the professional fund raiser floored me. "He doesn't take calls from members of the House." These folks really do believe that they have bought and paid for the party. I hope we prove them wrong in the next few weeks.
Great blog. The problem continues for the short-sighted Hillary. if nominated after using this type of bullying tactic, she undermines her ability to attack McCain for the fact that his campaign is beholden to and being run by fat-cat lobbyists. (She already had a problem because she is taking PAC money and he isn't.) Hopefully the "little guys" in Pennsylvania (and Indiana, N. Carolina, etc.) will see that she is no more for "the common man (or woman)" than George Bush is.
These people who think they can buy everything are the reflection of our world where money buys power, speech and the right to con anyone weaker. This is what we have become, this is where we are. This is what the Clintons and their likes want to perpetuate.
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