Obama returns lobbyist contributions

[KingofNewOrleans]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070414/ap_on_el_pr/obama_lobbyists;_

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has returned more than $50,000 in political contributions after discovering the donors were lobbyists. Obama, who has pledged to change the ways of Washington, has repeatedly said he will not accept money from lobbyists or from special interest political action committees.
.....

The announcement was designed to get ahead of the FEC report, which must be filed by midnight Sunday. Many of the lobbyists' names will remain listed in the report because their checks were deposited before they were identified.

While shunning lobbyists money, the Obama campaign still has relied on political and policy advice from Washington lobbyists and does accept donations from lobbyists spouses.

Article says Edwards doesn't take lobbyist money either, wouldn't be surprised if he has to return some donations too.

I dunno, I'm not surprised that lobbyist money slipped thru, so that's no biggie. Taking money from lobbyist's spouse seems to kind of undercut the whole theme though.

Couple of days ago, an Obama supporter actually posted an article talking about Tom Daschle's involvement with the Obama campaign and seemed intrigued with the idea of Daschle as a running mate, apparently unaware that Daschle is in fact a full fledged lobbyist now.


Seems that running an ethical and well-financed campaign is kind of like going thru puberty, no matter what your still going to end up with a few zits.

[Grandrose]

1. Could it be a dirty trick???

Those swift-boaters are out there, just saying!! The Obama camp is so proud of not taking lobbyist money and have made the point on numerous occasions. :think:

[WCGreen]

2. "does accept donations from lobbyists spouses."

Holy shit, does this guy parse or what....

And he claims to be an outsider...

I haven't made up my mind one way or another as of yet but this just sounds like business as usual to me...

Stunts trump substance...

[meldroc]

3. Lobbying isn't all that bad, but we need to get the money out...

That's part of politics - we have representatives and senators that create legislation, and people talk to them and try to persuade them why certain legislation is a good idea. I've got a secret for you. I've acted as a lobbyist once. Actually, at the time, I was calling myself an activist, and as part of the Occupation Project, I had a nice chat with one of my senator's aides, trying to emphasize what a meat-grinder the war in Iraq had become, why the war was a bad thing, and why going to war with Iran would also be a bad thing. Not so different from other people chatting with elected officials and their staff when it comes down to it. On occasion, I've even donated my own money to politicians.

Nevertheless, money's become far too big a thing in politics, and I certainly welcome seeing Obama taking action to not have himself beholden to corporate interests. We need public financing of elections so we can get rid of this legalized bribery entirely