Queen Of The Hidden Dollar

"Follow the money." It was my favorite line from All the President's Men. It was the ultimate tip made to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they investigated a little known break-in at the Watergate. The speaker was W. Mark Felt who for 33 years was known only as "deep throat". The advice is as good and as relevant today as it was back then.

With regard to earmarks, an issue that voters of both parties respond to, Sen. Hillary Clinton is the queen of the hidden dollar. The Clinton campaign has repeatedly refused to respond to requests that she identify her earmarks. She went so far as to vote against an amendment last year which would have required public disclosure of earmark requests.

Clinton now says she plans to release her requests for 2009 but when it comes to previous years, mums the word. Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates that Senator Clinton has received a little over two billion dollars in earmarks during the course of her Senate career.

Here are some of her earmarks, and other information about them, that are of particular interest.

Sen. Clinton got $18,600 in campaign contributions from Alan Gerry, a former cable television mogul and registered Republican, days after she made a million dollar earmark for his Woodstock Concert Museum. It was included in a Senate education spending bill. It's neither illegal nor unusual for contributors to benefit from congressionally directed spending. Far too often, in fact, it's business as usual. When the earmark made the news late last year the Senate finally passed an amendment to cut the funding.

In the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill, Mrs. Clinton has secured more earmarks than any other Democrat except for panel Chairman Sen. Carl Levin. Clinton's beneficiaries include defense giant Northrop Grumman, which secured $6 million for the AN/SPQ-9B radar; New York-based Telephonics, which won $5 million for a standardized aircraft wireless intercom system for the National Guard Black Hawk helicopter fleet; Plug Power Inc., another New York state company, which got $3 million for fuel cell power technology; and Alliant Tech Systems (ATK), which won $3.5 million for the X-51 B robust scramjet research.

The Seattle Times reported that in all, Clinton co-sponsored 66 earmarks totaling about $150 million. Clinton mostly handed out business to defense contractors with operations in New York. The Seattle Times counted more than 220 earmarks for Clinton in six other recent spending bills.

In turn, Clinton has taken approximately $60,000 from Defense lobbyists in the 2008 election cycle.

It was also recently made public that Clinton, over the past three years, has secured $8 million in earmarks for General Motors for hybrid, hydrogen and fuel-cell research including $3 million for GM in the fiscal 2008 Pentagon spending bill. One of GM's main lobbyists on the issue is Steve Ricchetti, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and one of Hillary Clinton's 'Hillraisers' who are committed to raising at least $100,000 for her presidential campaign. As a donor, he has given $4,600, the maximum allowed, to the campaign. It was reported in The Washington Post that Ricchetti's firm earned $120,000 in the first half of this year from lobbying for GM on issues that included the development and promotion of hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid vehicles.

With regard to years past, Mrs. Clinton's unwillingness to give even the most basic information about the special funding she has requested as a United States senator leaves wide open the question of what it is that she has to hide.

Is she hiding information about donors she requested earmarks for? What is the role that lobbyists and corporations have had in her office as she requested more than a billion dollars for their pet projects? Has Senator Clinton proposed any earmarks for corporations or projects that ex-president Bill Clinton has personally advocated for?

There are more questions than answers it seems when it comes to following the queen's riches.

Comments

[mrJJ]

One of Clinton's liabilities is Norman Hsu... The question is why hasn't the MSM taken a real hard look at Norman Hsu's backround? A con man and thief that had a "meteroric rise on the Democratic political scene". ROFLMAO really? Actually idiot Norman's picture as a youngster appears on an FBI B&W surveillance telephoto picture tagged (unidentified associates) of a NYC street gang tied to Chinese Organized crime based in the US...reference U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Asian Organized Crime (1984,1989, 1993). . Btw Norman did also funnel funds to Sen Barrak Obama's campaign...Interesting tidbit.. who directed Norman too the then freshman Sen Obama? .... ding ding ding... The Clinton's. No one has the history to a certain err element of ready, willing & able philantropists of an asian persuasion then the Clinton's. A walk through recent history may be in order for you youngsters.

Charle Trie
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/campfin/stories/op080397.htm

Norman Hsu's Boss Chan Tse-Chiu aka Eddie Chan
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D6173AF931A3575AC0A966958260

Norman
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5643329

Rendell had said last week he planned to keep nearly $40,000 of Hsu's money even though he was wanted for failing to appear for sentencing after pleading no contest to a felony charge of bilking investors out of $1 million.

"Though Norman is my friend, and remains so, his failure to appear casts a new light on his assertions regarding the original case," Rendell said in a statement before Hsu's arrest Thursday. "As a result, I will follow other elected officials and donate the money he contributed to me to charity."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/07/politics/main3240773.shtml

Reports are that former NY Chinatown Tong leader turned federal Informant Wing Yeung Chan has recently been escorted in and out of his facility by the US Marshall Service... I wonder if Chan Wing is being used to verify anything that Norman has reportedly told the told the US Attorney?
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1995/10/27/1995-10-27_judge_slaps_ban_on_leader_in.html

Rethugs are close but no Cigar... PRC link is total bull...I'm sure it was added to spice their article.
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12220

A closer look at the political activity of those Hsu donors suggests their contributions to Clinton's presidential campaign did not mark their first donations to the senator from New York. Hsu's donors gave $256,945 to Clinton's senate campaign since 2005, and $40,000 to her political action committee, "Hill Pac" during that period.

Some of that money may have eventually found its way into Clinton's presidential accounts, because she transfered about $10 million from her senate fund into her presidential coffers.

Asked if the campaign was considering returning any of that additional money, campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said the campaign was not. "We didn't keep track of the contributions in the same way so we do not know which contributions to credit to Mr. Hsu," Wolfson said.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/17/mosk_on_hrc.html

[timm0]

Just when I thought I already had far more than enough reasons to harbor the disgust I have for "that woman" - along comes more.