The Nation: For Hillary, there is no such thing as Dirty Money

[illinoisprogressive]

With an endorsement of sorts from George Bush, Hillary has now rounded up about all the big names and moneybags in Washington politics. The President predicts she will get the Democratic nomination, and everything seems to be going her way. Never has the adjective "golden" found a more apposite noun to modify than "Ms. Clinton."

The woman has always had an affinity for gold. You can trace her appetite for bling back to her Arkansas days, when she was a partner in the Rose Law Firm. Questions arose about her billing clients, which have not yet been satisfactorily answered. Nor have the suspicions about her picking up that quick 100 grand in the commodities market been allayed. The commodities market is where they bet on the price of things like oil and pork belly futures; amateur investors get swindled but not Hillary. No amateur she when it comes to the dough-ray-me.

Hillary escaped political damage from accepting campaign contributions from Norman Hsu, the shadowy businessman who has been accused of bilking investors of $60 million in addition to running afoul of the election laws.


snip -


Then there is Pamela Layton. According to the Wall Street Journal:

When Hillary Rodham Clinton held an intimate fund-raising event at her Washington home in late March, Layton donated $4,600, the maximum allowed by law, to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign.

But the 37-year-old Ms. Layton says she and her husband were reimbursed by her husband's boss for the donations. "It wasn't personal money. It was all corporate money," Mrs. Layton said outside her home here. "I don't even like Hillary. I'm a Republican."

The boss is William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising "bundler" for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Layton's gift was one of more than a dozen donations that night from people with Republican ties or no history of political giving. Mr. Danielczyk and his family, employees and friends donated a total of $120,000 to Mrs. Clinton in the days around the fund-raiser.

If Danielczyk did what the article alleges, he could go to jail. Reimbursing your employees for political contributions made in their names with your money is against the law. Whether Hillary's connection to Danielczyk will eventually bite her is anybody's guess. It is believed in the big-money circles where Hillary lives that the practice is common although done with more subterfuge than in Layton's case.

Both of the Clintons seem to have gone money-crazy. Bill is out loose on the world taking enormous amounts of money from anyone who pays him to appear anywhere and bragging about it. With a pension of $186,000 a year plus innumerable other perks, another ex-President might rein in the itchy palm urge, but Bill is not known as a self-control artist. Whether he is also acting as a bag man for his wife is something for future grand juries to investigate.


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071015/howl

[David Dunham]

1. This author is hurting our party's likely nominee. Shame!!!

[mod mom]

16. Shame on the Nation or on Hillary? I want a party devoid of corporate ownership

who works in the best interest of the people.

I will vote for any Dem outside of Hillary. Her latest vote of Kyl Lieberman Amendment is just another example on how she is not looking out for the interests of the nation. I will vote for a Dem, however, I WILL WRITE IN AL GORE!

WE NEED A VISIONARY LEADER, NOT A CORPORATE LAP DOG.

[bvar22]

19. The Nation is HELPING what remains of the Democratic Party.

The cancer of $MONEY$ and Republicans masquerading as Democrats MUST be removed from the Democratic Party or there is no hope for a viable Middle Class in America or PEACE in our World.

[killbotfactory]

2. If you lie down with the dogs, you're bound to get fleas

"The boss is William Danielczyk, founder of a Washington-area private-equity firm and a major fund-raising "bundler" for Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Layton's gift was one of more than a dozen donations that night from people with Republican ties or no history of political giving. Mr. Danielczyk and his family, employees and friends donated a total of $120,000 to Mrs. Clinton in the days around the fund-raiser."

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to do that.

[Herman Munster]

3. boring

the truth is nobody gives a fuck about where Hillary gets her money. That's so 1994 and boring to everyone but the rabid hillary haters on the far left and far right.

[Mother Of Four]

4. I care.

Many of us want a president that we can be proud of again.

[superkia]

5. It would be nice to have one represent the people of the ...

United States but I only see Dennis Kucinich doing that. Too bad the media ignored his message from the beginning and most of the sheeple have followed. The guy said the war that we all hate, was about oil and voted against it in 2002 while the others saw the same evidence and voted yes? Americans give them a free pass and Belittle Kucinich. He has spoke out against the attack on the constitution by the government, no one else has stood with him. They get a pass and he Kucinich gets belittled. He spoke out and wants the patriot act repealed, no one stands with him and again they get a pass and he gets belittled. He continues to vote against funding the war, the others don't even vote last Thursday and the administration now has more money to continue this war for the corporations and profit. The others get a free pass and Kucinich gets belittled. He went to the floor and asked for an investigation into the Hunt oil deal in Iraq, while the others have done nothing. He believes all Americans should have non profit health care as a right like many other countries and the rest want profit insurance so the insurance industry can still profit. How do they profit you ask, overcharge us or deny coverage for certain things. They get a pass and Kucinich is the unelectable one?


In the beginning of these campaigns, the only reasons people gave for not supporting Kucinich was that he was unelectable while they would say in another post that any democrat will destroy a republican? Now as time has went past, the new reason for not supporting him is because he cant run a successful campaign and that means he cant run the country. Our political system is now run by money, yes we vote, but if you are a candidate that stands for the people like you are supposed to do, you are not going to get the huge money fropm the corporations to run your successful campaign. So now people blame him for not selling us out and taking a stand for him? How will our country ever be proud of a president if we always elect the ones who don't stand for us?

[jefferson_dem]

11. Thank you.

That's what it's all about, you know.

[JTFrog]

12. Aparently you've made

the transition of re-interpreting what is fair and humane. Well good for you and your cognitive dissonance.

There are plenty of democrats who care.

[Forkboy]

13. No, the truth is YOU don't give a fuck.

[MadHound]

14. Perhaps you should give a fuck

After all, as we've seen with Bush, those who give the big bucks to a candidate get their own particular issues taken care of, at the expense of the peoples' business.

I for one want to know who the corporate players are that are controlling, er, contributing to Hillary. It gives a good indication of what sort of shit Hillary's going to push, and what agenda she will follow.

A good example of this is in this article itself. Here's Hillary, taking the big bucks from financial sector bigwigs. And gee, what platform did she just come out with? Yep, that $5000 dollar bond for every newborn. Big business, big profit that is for those in the financial sector.

This is one big reason I can't vote for Hillary, she's nothing but a corporate whore, willing to sell herself, and sadly all the rest of this country, out to the highest bidder.

[dionysus]

17. um, I care if our candidate is swimming in dirty money...

why don't you?

[mod mom]

21. the fact is MANY care enough and we are the vocal opponents of HRC and her corporate

ties.

[karynnj]

26. I care

It is wrong to condemn corruption in Republicans and ignore it in Democrats. In 2006, the top two issues were corruption and Iraq. Has Hillary ever led in a fight against corruption or on Iraq?

[Mind_your_head]

6. YIKES!!!! How did this get 7 recommends?????

Did anyone actually READ this?

Maybe there are more 27%'ers on this board than is generally thought!

[Stephanie]

22. Maybe there are more PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS on this board than YOU thought

We don't want her and her blood money.

[rinsd]

7. What a shock that Von Hoffman would selectively quotes an article.

No response from the campaign just the dirt. What a piece of garbage.

Asked about the donations bundled by Mr. Danielczyk, Mrs. Clinton's campaign said yesterday it would return the $9,200 donated by Mr. and Mrs. Layton.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said: "These allegations are troubling and we will again ask each of the individuals solicited by Mr. Danielczyk to affirm that their contributions were given with their own funds." Mr. Wolfson said the campaign will return any contributions that didn't come from the donor's own money.

And I love the drive by smear of a Bush "endorsement" and the RW moldy oldie commodities charge.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Kick for both smarmy behaving Clintons as well as their morally bankrupt DLC

:thumbsdown:

[Totally Committed]

15. The DLC SUCKS..... And, the Clintons are it's proud godparents.

:thumbsdown:






TC

[saracat]

9. Finally someone with the guts to call the Clinton Campaign out on its actions!

[oasis]

10. Warmed over "Rose Law Firm" b.s.? Rush Limbaugh is likely to sue The Nation for plagiarism.

:eyes:

[antiimperialist]

18. If Hillary is breaking the law, press charges

When are her opponents gonna shut up and press charges, or start an ethics investigation?
Perhaps because this is a tempest in a teapot?

[kwolf68]

20. Hillary is interesting

Many on the left can't stand her, yet she has absolutely no appeal to moderate voters. Despite how screwed up the country is and my desire to vote, I am as dis-interested in voting for her as I ever have been in voting.

Hillary is strictly someone a party-line Dem would vote for. She offers no inspiration. Just pandering talking points.

[bvar22]

23. Nailed It!

:patriot:

[creeksneakers2]

24. All campaigns end up returning some money

Its nearly impossible to know where it all comes from. Is there any evidence at all that Hillary knew laws were being broken?

Its sad to see the Nation, a great magazine, lowering itself to recycling old disproven right wing propaganda about the Clintons. If Hillary swiped any money from the Rose Law Firm by overbilling I'm more than certain Ken Starr would have prosecuted her for it.

[paulk]

25. what?

did "The Nation" get bought up by The American Spectator" or something?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Spectator