"The Man Who Bought the Clintons:"
An article we Bernie Supporters should find of great interest. Explains a lot about the Dems Courting of Big Business, Unions, what happened to Howard Dean and more about the "Clinton Machine."
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October 23, 2015
The Man Who Bought the Clintons: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
by Jeffrey St. Clair
In May 1999, the Labor Department brought suit against Jack Moore and John Grau, charging the two men with mismanaging the pension fund for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Moore was the longtime secretary of the union, while Grau was the vice-president of the National Electrical Contractor’s Association, which was partner in the fund. At issue was a series of sweetheart real estate deals in central Florida, which regulators labeled “imprudent”, and cost the fund money. Moore and Grau eventually settled the case for more than six figures. The union was forced to kick in another $5 million to cover the losses to the pension fund. The person at the center of the scandal, however, made out in the deal very well, indeed. His name: Terry McAuliffe, former head of the DNC, now governor of Virginia.
McAuliffe met Moore in 1988, when both were raising money for the doomed presidential bid of Dick Gephardt. They became close friends, allies in a campaign to redesign the Democratic Party into a more moderate political vessel, along the lines of the pre-Reagan Republicans. Moore controlled the $6 billion IBEW pension fund and had a reputation for investing money in businesses run by friends and political cronies.
So it was that in November 1990, McAuliffe approached Moore and his friend Grau with a proposal for a real estate partnership in central Florida with an investment company called American Capital Management, which McAuliffe owned with his wife Dorothy. The deal involved the purchase of the Woodland Square Shopping Center and five apartment complexes outside Orlando, Florida. It was a lopsided partnership. The pension fund put up $39 million to purchase the property. McAuliffe shelled out $100, yet he and his wife enjoyed 50 percent ownership in the project. He eventually parlayed his $100 investment into a $2.45 million profit.
Fresh from this triumph, McAuliffe approached Moore with a new proposal. He asked Moore to dip into the pension fund one more time for $6 million so that he could purchase a parcel of land south of Orlando called Country Run, which McAuliffe planned to subdivide into 500 single-family homes. Moore obliged and loaned McAuliffe the money. The development soon proved to be a bust. Only half the homes were built and many of them didn’t sell. Years passed, but McAuliffe never bothered to make a single payment to the pension fund on the loan. According to Labor Department records, McAuliffe was in default from December 1992 through October 1997. The managers of the pension fund never demanded payment or called in the loan. The only collateral they had required was the nearly worthless Country Run property itself.
Eventually, McAuliffe found a buyer for the property and repaid the loan. But the aroma of the deals attracted the attention of the Labor Department, which had been looking into the looting of worker pension funds. In May of 1999, the agency brought a suit against Moore and Grau for mismanagement of the fund. Both eventually settled, agreeing to six figure fines, and resigned their positions. The IBEW was compelled to reimburse the pension fund to the tune of five million dollars. The Labor Department didn’t have any authority to go after McAuliffe. That was up to the Clinton Justice Department and they took a pass. He wasn’t sued or otherwise inconvenienced. So a labor fund got looted and Terry McAuliffe got very rich.
CONTINUED AT:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/23/the-man-who-bought-the-clintons-the-political-business-of-terry-mcauliffe/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Just this week a Hillary supporter, I do volunteer work with, told me that to support Bernie was divisive to the party. 
I had to tell her that we are Democrats. We have opinions, sometimes opposite of one another, but when did walking in lockstep become part of democracy?
For those of us who have been around here awhile...it "connects many dots" that we may have read at the time....but with so much Disinfo...we have forgotten as we had to go on and live our lives to get through it all.
I did a "snip" of this article on a thread in GD and someone asked that I posted it as an OP ....but, I thought it would fit better here in "Our Group" than a stand alone. But, even though the introductory sounds like its just about Terry and his "dirty deeds" it gets into more later in the article
Many of us wondered why Howard Dean is now working for Hillary. The article talks about Howard's Debts after he ran and who cleared that debt up for him....and MORE.
The Unions and the rest in the article.
We thought they were Heroes........we learn it's more complicated. But, all the news reporting of "Yestedays" shouldn't be left to sweep under the carpet.
Much work to do....
Most of us Legacy Du'ers lived through all of this...but, we didn't have the ability to have the Hindsight we do Now since so much has evolved since then. Back then...we were reading and posting the latest news stories...but, they would go Nowhere...after initial post and a bit of backlash...and, then Forgotten.
So, this article did seem to put pieces together to refresh our memories that maybe we know more NOW in hindsight reading this than we did before. At least, that's how I read it.
Anyway....we can't let this info just die and not be revisited historically, imho.
This gives a whole new perspective to what made the DLC, New Democrat, Third Way gobbledygook tick.
BTW, "Legacy DUers" is such a great way of describing us oldtimers.
