Democracy is a Cold Corpse: The Hard Lesson of Soft Money

[stickdog]

Read this and weep for the electoral system we call "democracy."

Which soft money 527s spent the most money in New Hampshire in 2003?

1) Democratic Governors` Association
2) Edwards` PAC
3) The Kerry co-opted Emily`s List
4) Kerry`s PAC
5) Gephardt`s PAC
6) The Kerry co-opted "Friends of Jeanne Shaheen" PAC
7) Daschle`s PAC
11) New Democrat Network PAC

Please take a few seconds to click on these links and look at the top contributors and the top recipients for yourselves!

Then check out which PACs (other than straight labor) gave state level Democratic parties (and state Dem party insiders) the most juice in 2003 in:

Iowa
Missouri
Arizona
South Carolina
New Mexico (The big story here is the huge $ that went to Gov. Richardson.)


*****


Here's another PAC that might shed some light on "our" party. Look at whom this PAC is supposed to "help." Then look at the who the biggest contributor is!

And why did George Soros give $150,000 to the "Stop Hillary" PAC? Why did Jacksom Stephens, the most famous benefactor of both Clark & Clinton, personally donate almost half a million bucks to the disgustingly anti-Dean and anti-Democratic Club for Growth. And why the fuck did Dick Gephardt tap a bunch of big corporations to raise money for a PAC that turned around and gave $120,000 to the Missouri Republican State Committee?

Please note that I haven't even scratched the surface of this purposefully tangled network of corporate influence and political graft-mastery.

When Dean supporters were all excited by his record breaking 41 million dollars in hard money, why were party insiders running around trying to get us to sign their ubiquitous ABB oaths?

Could it be because Democratic Party, candidate and supporter PACs spent over 150,000 million in primarily corporate financed soft money in the first nine month in 1993 alone?

[Jerseycoa]

1. Jackson Stephens

famous benefactor of Clark?

Can you elaborate? I know Clark worked for this guy's brother, but how is an employer a benefactor?

[democratreformed]

17. Yeah, I was really getting interested in this message until I read that

fabrication.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Soft kick

:kick:

[janx]

3. Thank you, RIF.

for the soft kick.

--jk

[Lobo_13]

4. So what you're saying is

that the DNC and John Kerry did to Dean what the RNC and Bush did to McCain?

Just more proof that the similarities are much more numerous than the differences?

Skull and Bones
Special Interest Quid Pro Quo
Dirty campaigning
etc.
and so on

[stickdog]

6. Yes, Dean was clearly McCained. It's much cleaner than actual

assassination, don't you think?

We've come a long way in 40 years, haven't we?

[RetroLounge]

5. kick

:kick:

[Duder]

7. The lesson is...

Democracy is on a corporate flight

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Who do you accuse of being

"party insiders" ? And have you forgotten all the "If Dean wins the nomination, what will you do?" threads that cropped up like mushrooms in a manure pile after a spring rain? Or the "Dean Will Win: Deal With It!"/ "Dean's Nomination is Inevitable" threads?

You wrote:

"When Dean supporters were all excited by his record breaking 41 million dollars in hard money, why were party insiders running around trying to get us to sign their ubiquitous ABB oaths?"

Some of us said all along that if money was what made the race, we were all screwed because Bush would win. Some of us also feared all along that if Dean didn't win, his supporters would sour on the party and the country and figuratively take their ball and go home. Is that what's happening here?

Someone in the Dean campaign chose to spend almost all of that $41 million before the New Hampshire primary, the voters didn't choose Dean in Iowa or NH, and he couldn't raise enough money to run ads in yesterday's seven primaries, losing all of them as well. Now you're proclaiming Democracy itself is a cold corpse. . . How can that be when people are turning out in record numbers to vote in this year's primaries? Do you think that corporate contributions to PAC's are what caused a majority of voters to choose Kerry in seven states, Edwards in one, and Clark (maybe) in the other?

[stickdog]

11. Money IS all that makes the race.

And money will determine if Kerry/Edwards beats Bush/Cheney. Any Kucinich supporter should understand that implicitly.

But HARD MONEY -- you know, the EVEN playing field on which a relatively powerless guy like Dean was able to win big simply by exciting people with his ideas and standing up for their beliefs -- is just the tip of grease-berg. Shit, John Kerry could easily hit up just his closest relatives for 40 million in soft money contributions.

I mean, 1993 wasn't even an election year, and the total soft money spent by the DNC and the insider Democratic Presidential candidates dwarfed the entire amount of hard money raised over the same period.

Dean spent 20 million in Iowa and New Hampshire in a vain attempt to level the playing field a little. It was a gamble he had no choice but to take -- as anyone can clearly see from yesterday's results. However, with the media, 8 of the 9 other candidates AND all the most powerful Democratic insiders against him, Dean needed a lot more than just a traditional front-runner's campaign and 20 million dollars.

The point of my post is that if you want to do well in Iowa and NH, you need you need to liberally grease the Democratic Party in Iowa and NH with the soft money you raise from the same special interests you then rail against in your empty campaign rhetoric. In Iowa, a hefty donation to Vilsack appears to have been a critical prerequisite.

[ShaneGR]

9. The SKY IS FALLING!

We are all doomed by Democrats spending money.

[stickdog]

12. If we aren't talking about grease here,

how do you explain the numbers?

[kayob1]

10. Interesting

Thanks for posting

[Cocoa]

13. "The Kerry Co-opted Emily's List"????

does Kerry have a special relationship with Emily's List, other than havig a good record on abortion?

And is the influence of Emily's List a serious problem to you? It's not to me.

[stickdog]

15. Why did Emily's list give the AZ Dem Party $500,000? Why did they

give the NH Dem Party $200,000?

Have abortion rights been desperately threatened in those states?

Look at EL's newset, biggest contributors and then tell me that it's not just being used as cover to accept and distrubute soft money.

[Cocoa]

16. what does it have to do with Kerry?

explain why you called them the "Kerry co-opted Emily's List" instead of "Emily's List."

Why don't you just say who those contributors are and make your point directly instead of dropping coy hints.

[stickdog]

19. Why don't you answer the questions I posed?

Why did Emily's list give $500,000 to the AZ Dem Party and $200,000 to the NH Dem Party?

Is there some abortion rights crisis going on in these states that I'm not aware of?

[stickdog]

20. And does the name Mary Beth Cahill ring a bell? (nt)

[blm]

14. What about Dean's Fund for a Healthy America?? What about the Entergy $$$

What about those deals SEALED in Dean's papers?

Tell the truth about Dean for a change.

You can also accuse SEIU and AFSCME and make all their millions to Dean sound more nefarious.

[redqueen]

18. Key phrase -- 1993

Who ushered in this era of complete corruption?

Thank you, DLC!

:puke:


I'm really glad people are noticing this!!!!

[stickdog]

21. Actually. that was an idiot mistake on my part. I meant to type "2003".

I must have been pining for those halcyon days of my political youth.

[windansea]

22. correct!!

whats the dif???

nothing much is going to change...the Dean campaign had the right message...throw a monkeywrench into the machine...Dean supporters motivated for all the right reasons...unfortunately Dean lacked a key ingrediant to be seen as credible...national security/foreign relations...Dean/Clark message very similar...outsider vs pro IWR etc etc DC insider SOS corporate enablers...if Dean was Clark...we wouldn't be having this conversation...Kerry Edwards etc would still be in single digits