Political Ruminations

RACHEL MADDOW: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is Urging Members to Outsource Jobs

The hypocrisy, the blatant anti-Americanism of the far Right Wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce is enough to make your blood boil. Watch it, and let the rage begin.

 

THINK PROGRESS: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a Far Right Lobbying Group

A far right lobbying group which accepts donations from foreign interests, which are then used to smear Democrats. From the always on target, Think Progress, emphasis mine:

Since the 70s, the Chamber has been a far right lobbying group, representing mostly multinational corporations like ExxonMobil and CitiGroup. Last year, nearly half of the U.S. Chamber’s entire budget came from large health insurance companies. As Think Progress reported, the Chamber also recently began a secretive effort to attract donors from foreign corporations, including the Bahrain Petroleum Company and the Bank of India.

VIDEO: Who is Secretly Buying Our Elections?

Chilling. And as someone else said [can't remember exactly who], this election is for all of the marbles. VOTE.

 

VIDEO: Morning Joe Forced to Retract His False Equivalency Between the Chamber and Moveon.org

Joe Scarborough is a moron.

 

The Washington Post:

I suppose this is par for the course. But perhaps it should be part of the discussion that right wing commentators who claim lefty groups and unions are running ads funded by anonymous donors -- just as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other righty groups are doing -- are just flat out lying.

This lie is so easily debunked that Joe Scarborough actually retracted it today on Morning Joe after making the claim and getting corrected. Will Karl Rove and Fox News and others spreading this falsehood or letting it go unchecked do the same?

Scarborough, during a discussion this morning of the Obama-and-Dem-versus-Chamber dust-up, called on President Obama to demand disclosure from unions and MoveOn, claiming "blatant hypocrisy."

But the comparison is totally bogus. Under Federal law, unions disclose far more about their funding than other political groups do, and it just so happens that MoveOn's ads are funded by a Federal political committee that has to comply with the same disclosure requirements that candidate and party committees do.

Crooks and Liars:

Uh huh. Or you're just so eager to deflect rightful criticism that the Citizens United ruling and the frightening thought that foreign contributions are now affecting American elections, that you just pulled erroneous facts from a location near that hip. There is no equivalence on the left to the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). There are no huge paychecks from shadowy billionaires eager to foist their selfish and short-sighted world view on the rest of the country. And Democrats are being outspent 7 to 1.

We've done posts on the foreign interests, as have Think Progress and other liberal blogs. I don't see a need to rehash it, probably not nearly as well as others have. But I do think that the importance of this cannot be overstressed: We will NEVER have any true democracy or fair elections until we demand public financing. All other complaints about weak-kneed Democrats or corporatist Republicans or being sidelined and not listened to take a back seat to that one fact.

As I said on another post, the situation forced on Americans by the Citizens United ruling, is the most important issue of our time. And if we do not legislate that elections be publicly financed, it is not an overstatement to say that America will no longer even resemble a democracy.

VIDEO: Michele Bachmann Claims That No Foreign Money is Being Used to Fund Candidates

Joining Karl Rove in his protests, the batshit crazy Bachmann [R-MN], was on Fox Business yesterday where she was all in a fury, railing at Democrats and the White House for asking the Chamber to disclose its donors. Bachmann said that the Chamber only funds candidates out of its political action pac, and that there are no foreign donors.

Bachman:

This is about as low as it goes. It’s more than just disingenious, it’s a flat-out, patent lie. The Chamber of Commerce, who has been accused of taking foreign contributions to spend on elections, is absolutely not doing that. They have a separate political action fund and they use that only from American donors.

 

Unfortunately for Bachmann, her claim is easily proven false.

The Chamber does indeed have a political action fund. However, its PAC has so far raised $161,000 and spent only $104,000. Yet, the Chamber itself has spent more than $12 million so far this election season (and plans to spend $75 million), largely helping Republican candidates.

See, the PAC is required to disclose donors and funds; thanks to the Citizen’s United ruling, corporations are not required to disclose, nor limited as to dollar amounts of contributions.

Prior to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the Chamber would have had to run its political ads out of its PAC, contributions to which are disclosed. But the Court’s decision allows large corporations — such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns without publicizing their donors. [......]

America for Sale.

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RELATED POSTS: Update: Tracking the Aftermath of the Citizen’s United Ruling

Foreign Money Funding Republican Campaign Ads Against Democrats Via the US Chamber of Commerce

For all posts on the fallout from/aftermath of, the Citizen's United ruling, click here.

Morning Quote

Former Bush political strategist, Karl Rove, on Fox News Sunday, ranting at President Obama and the DNC for shining the light on the activities of Rove in concert with the US Chamber of Commerce.

The president of the United States accused the Chamber of Commerce, and the Democratic National Committee in its new ad accuses Ed Gillespie and I of a criminal violation of our law by getting foreign money and spending it on American political campaigns, and they have not one shred of evidence to back up that baseless lie. This is a desperate and I think disturbing trend by the president of the United States to tar his political adversaries with some kind of enemies list, with being unrestrained by any facts or evidence whatsoever.

So disingenuous for Rove. But of course, there is evidence.

Sam Stein [emphasis mine]:

There is a obvious element of chutzpah when a political operative defined by his use of dirty tricks accuses his opponents of the same. [.…]

The fact remains, however, that a resolution to the debate is fairly obvious. Simply disclosing the names of who is donating to each of these institutions would clear the air and validate either Rove or the White House. But with a campaign finance law stuck in congressional limbo and hordes of potential donations at stake in this election, transparency has instead been replaced by innuendo.

Justice Alito Was Wrong;Foreign Entities Are Investing in Our Elections

And they are doing so anonymously, and without limit.

Think Progress reminded us yesterday of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s big moment during the State of the Union address in January.

When President Obama warned in last January’s State of the Union address that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision “will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our election[s],” right-wing Justice Samuel Alito infamously mouthed the words, “Not True.”

 

Earlier this week, our Citizen’s United update reported the money flowing from the Chamber, but what we did not know at that time was that foreign entities were contributing to the Chamber’s fund.

Thanks to the investigation conducted by Think Progress, we now know that to be the case.

A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.

In recent years, the Chamber has become very aggressive with its fundraising, opening offices abroad and helping to found foreign chapters (known as Business Councils or “AmChams”). While many of these foreign operations include American businesses with interests overseas, the Chamber has also spearheaded an effort to raise money from foreign corporations, including ones controlled by foreign governments. These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads:

And so, President Obama was right, and Alito has now been proven wrong.

Adding….this is just the first of many years to come that we will be fighting against the aftermath of the Citizen’s United ruling.