Pay to Play Superdelegate Style
By pm317 on December 18, 2008 at 2:50 AM in Current Affairs, DNC
(bumped up from Tuesday evening by Susan — because it’s so good!)
There has been a lot of talk lately about Pay to Play. What with Blagojevich getting caught trying to sell Obama’s senate seat? What of Obama and his people perhaps trying to negotiate something for that seat (Read Fitzgerald’s Complaint or Truthteller’s posts.)
There are many unanswered questions. For instance, why would Blagojevich take this direction if he did not think maybe from past experience that Obama would be receptive?
If Obama was the lone virgin in the whorehouse of Chicago politics (as one commenter put it), why would Blagojevich even attempt this at this time knowing that the Feds are on to him? May be our premise is wrong. Obama is not the lone virgin as Obama supporters might dream.
Look at what happened during the primaries. Things got rough and competitive. Hillary Clinton and her supporters put up a good fight. How could they not when many of them knew she got the majority popular vote and would have led in delegates if not for DNC shenanigans? It all came down to the superdelegates. But Obama was ready and I am sure his experience with Chicago politics came in handy. Political Intelligence revealed some numbers back in February:
Obama’s political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.
Who gave him all that money and why? He just got elected to the senate in 2004. Would Fannie and Freddie be in there? Most definitely. He was the second politician to get the most money from Fannie and Freddie next only to Dodd. He is a miracle worker. But but..I digress.
Back to the Political Intelligence story from February, because I can hear Obama supporters screaming, “Hillary did it too!” Perhaps. But the scale of the numbers tells you a different story. Looks to me like Hillary was arguing for the merits of the case when many superdelegates were thinking “what is in it for me?”
Clinton’s political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to superdelegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000.
When the article was written in February, about half the 800 superdelegates had committed to either Clinton or Obama. All those people who partook a share of the $694,000 slowly trickled into Camp Obama without making it of course, too obvious. Sort of Pay to Play in slow motion.
Fast forwarding to now, how is this for a pay to play? We all know how the quiet and very private aristocrat Caroline Kennedy (she seems to have dropped the Schlossberg name) was thrust into the limelight by her uncle, Ted Kennedy during the primary and how she campaigned for Obama. Ted Kennedy is now pressuring NY Governor Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to Senator Clinton’s seat. From NYPost this is what Ted Kennedy told Paterson:
The elder Kennedy (D-Mass.), who’s battling brain cancer, has sent word to Gov. Paterson’s office that Caroline Kennedy, 51, has contacts and family connections that would mean legislation affecting New York would receive prompt attention, family sources said.
What exactly is he saying? That lawmakers don’t do their job without the influence of name and money? Unlike Blagojevich, these people are not crass enough to buy or sell with money but they do want a senate seat for campaigning for Obama.
Elections? Who needs them? Let us just:
* put it on eBay and sell it to the highest bidder
* dig dirt on the opponents’ sex life and eliminate them before the elections, of course
* get an uncle to throw his weight (a lot of it) around
* dispute signatures and other evidence of opponent’s support and eliminate them
* bribe or threaten the corrupt media to start their chorus and sing your tune
All of them have been tested by PEBO and have his seal of approval except the first one. That will be my suggestion and we will save millions of taxpayer dollars.
Wait.. I almost forgot
* scream racist at the opponent and his/her supporters (unique to PEBO but may be copied for future reference by any AA politician.)
{Speaking for me only.}
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, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
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