G. Gordon Liddy, an ex-CIA wingnut, and later a right wing
talk show host was found to have masterminded much of the shenanigans. But it
was also determined that White house aides including Chuck Colson, Edward
Haldeman (Chief of Staff at the time) and John Ehrlichman were all aware of the
details of the plot and all were eventually convicted for trying to cover up
the plot, as was John Mitchell the Attorney General of the United States, who
also had a moonlighting job at the time as Chairman of Creep.
In addition to the break ins and surveillance the committee
was found to have engaged in dirty tricks designed to shape or tarnish the Democratic
Party opposition. In one particularly egregious circumstance it was said that a
letter had been faked and then leaked by Creep.
The Canuck letter, as it was known was a silly forged document that
suggested Edmund Muskie a candidate for President at the time, didn’t
particularly like people with French accents. That letter put then candidate
Muskie in a particularly bad light. The candidate handled the whole letter deal
pretty poorly, crying in the snow and all, and soon dropped from the race. There
was much conjecture at the time that Creep was molding the election to get the
candidate they wanted. That was never directly proven, but there was broad
consensus that Creep was manipulating the entire process.
It came to light at the time that no less than AG John
Mitchel maintained a slush fund in a safe in his office and that the funds
contained therein were provided by among
others a fugitive financier named Robert Vesco—then living in Cuba-- trying to
curry favor with the administration. Vesco had put at least $200,000 into the
fund. Mitchell was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and
perjury and sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison. The sentence
was later reduced to one to four years by Judge John J. Sirica. Mitchell served
only 19 months of his sentence.
The slush fund itself was…Wait for it… $500,000.
How quaint.
Immediately following the Watergate convictions, Nixon’s
resignation and so forth, strict campaign finance laws were passed. Later in
2002 recognizing that the reforms put in place after Watergate had been far
outpaced by the lawyers for both parties and that money was pouring into the
system, Congress passed McCain Feingold.
Yet the 2008 election for president and Congress cost more
than $5.0 Billion (with a “B”) according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The presidential election alone cost more than $2.0 billion with the candidates
themselves raising about $400 million each, and $1.0 billion-plus additionally
being poured in by business, labor and other special interest PAC’s.
Obama’s top twenty contributors or bundlers raised $14
million alone of his almost $400 Billion haul. Of this top level bundled
contributions about 30% came from Wall Street , Banks and Finance firms,
26% from institutes of higher learning,
16% from tech companies, 12% from lawyers, and
9% from media companies. GE which as someone pointed out paid no taxes
this year contributed $500,000 alone.
While it should be pointed out that the money came from
employees of the firm or their vendors. There are limits to what the companies
can directly contribute to candidates, but those limits were largely
eviscerated by the Jan-2010 Supreme Court decision which qualified “money” as
speech and so eliminated most restrictions on corporate contributions to
campaigns through PAC’s. This court of apparently activist judges from the
right overturned elements of the McCain Feingold bill passed by Congress. As we
know activist judges are only activist when they overturn your preferred
legislation.
McCain, not to be outdone, also rose close to $400 million.
Though the overall funds total were similar, Obama’s actually raised more direct
contributions than McCain. His top twenty bundlers still raised close to $4.0
million with almost three quarters coming from finance firms including Citibank,
Goldman and so forth which funded both candidates.
There are NO labor unions on either candidate’s list of top
top contributors. Though we can be sure that democrats especially draw
substantial support from unions, we also know that it is no longer their
biggest source of funds. Corporations especially those in certain industries
far outspend labor.
This is before PAC money is counted. The Supreme Court did
maintain the requirement that the corporations had to publish their contributions
and how they raised the cash so the info is easily available on the net. Citibank’s
PAC raised and spent an additional million dollars, making their total
contributions for the cycle close to $2 million dollars. Goldman Sachs, a major
proponent of privatizing social security contributed in hard (direct to
candidate) and soft (PAC’s) money almost $6 million in the cycle, supporting
both candidates and both parties with their contributions. According to Open
Secrets the three headed monster of Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance has
already committed nearly $100 million this year to candidates and PAC’s with
more to come in an election cycle which has barely started and is still more
than a year away.
Pharmaceuticals contributed $32 million in 2008 and an
astoundingly similar amount in the non-presidential year 2010 of over $30
million. The health care lobby is also quite active on the lobbying side
spending over $200 million in lobbying in 2008, 2009, and 2010. That is $600
million in lobbying in three years.
The critics of OWS and apologists for Wall Street know these
truths, but they toss Molotov cocktails of smoke and illusion designed to
distract or wear down a public that is massively confused by the theatre they
have been witnessing. Obama is all over Wall Street and slyly taking up the OWS
cause, hoping that no one looks peeks behind the curtain and sees the piles of
cash on which he rests.
Romney, a former scion, a founding partner even, of Bain
capital an investment fund which puts money into underperforming companies,
spruces them up and resells them to the street for a profit now says he
understands the OWS protesters, whatever that means. This firm invested in some
great, or near great retail giants in the US including Staples, Michael’s
crafts, and others, so it cannot be argued that the funds entire growth has
rested on the heels of layoffs and deteriorating worker conditions. In the odd
way they make the case for why capitalism can be a good thing in America with well-directed
and well researched investment capital enhancing companies with great ideas to
thrive and grow. But to suggest that Bain is anything other than another Wall
Street Player is absurd. The current value of the Bain fund is $66 Billion.
Bain through its partners and employees by the way has contributed over $4.0
million since 1989.
Nixon, Creep, and that old gang of black bag men were
amateurs. The system is completely corrupted by this wash of cash that soils
everything it touches. Perhaps the OWS crowd can’t articulate their rage well,
but they know a rat when they see one and as with millions of other American’s
there is such a general sense that power lies in someone else’s hands, just out
of our line of sight or field of reach. It is the corruption of this money
which led the SEC and the Fed to look the other way, which allowed all these
firms to engage in a riotous Ponzi scheme investing in sub-prime loans and then
bundling them as hi-grade derivative investments, insured by AIG, and sold to
Fannie and Freddie. The market, deregulated by Clinton, and heated up by low interest
rates put in place right after 9-11 ran amok and everyone was making so much
money no one wanted to look at the rot and corruption behind the curtain. Capitalism
itself, always morally weak when left on its own, was corrupted by an
overabundance of cheap money and lack of regulatory zeal.
The reason that nothing gets done in Washington is that
there is always a financial interest on the other side that doesn’t want it to
get done. This is not republicans and democrats, tea party and OWS. America
built this. We created this system where hard right and hard left squabble
while millions in the middle struggle. We fight, we bicker, we lose track, and
while we weren’t watching someone stole our house, actually came in during the
dark of night and took it away.
No comments:
Post a Comment