Sheldon Adelson and Newt Gingrich: One gained clout from friendship, the other funding

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The way casino magnate Sheldon Adelson remembers it, he and his wife, Miriam, met then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995 in the majestic Capitol Rotunda as they made their way through the building while lobbying for a bill to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Nearly two decades later, Gingrich, on the campaign trail, has promised that his first executive order as president would be the embassy move, long a priority of ardent Israel supporters such as the Adelsons.

It would also be a sweet jackpot for the Adelsons, who are the biggest patrons of Gingrich’s political career.

Perhaps no other major presidential candidate in recent times has had his fortunes based so squarely on the contributions of a single donor, as Gingrich has on Adelson, who has spent millions in support of Gingrich and his causes over the past five years. In a primary season dominated by the mega-spending of super PACs, Adelson’s efforts on Gingrich’s behalf provide a window into the expanding influence of the super-rich on American politics."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/despite-supreme-court-ruling-texas-congressional-map-still-very-uncertain/2012/01/20/gIQACvSrBQ_blog.html

[Scurrilous]

1. Is Gingrich’s Hard Line on Palestine Paid for by Sheldon Adelson?

Gingrich went from Middle East moderate to saber-rattling hawk after Sheldon Adelson’s millions began flowing into the candidate’s coffers.

<snip>

"The linkage between campaign contributions and compromised candidates has grown so familiar that it no longer shocks, and indeed rarely even interests, most of us. But in the super-PAC era, when a single, $5 million, donation can resuscitate a broken Newt Gingrich, the search for a quid pro quo explanation expands with the enlarged dimensions of the donation. In the case of Las Vegas casino king Sheldon Adelson, Gingrich’s Daddy Warbucks, the size of the subsidy can literally shape a candidate’s views on matters of war and peace, and I’m not talking about a battle for gaming rights.

Adelson uses his money to abuse or anoint Israeli prime ministers (ask Ehud Olmert, on the abuse side, and the still-anointed Bibi Netanyahu) and American presidents (Gingrich versus Obama). He even pulled his money out of AIPAC, the top-pro Israel lobbying group, when it appeared to support a 2007 peace initiative championed by Olmert, President Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an effort denounced by Gingrich at the time. “I don’t continue to support organizations that help friends committing suicide just because they say they want to jump,” explained Adelson, who was already spearheading a coup designed to replace Olmert with Netanyahu.

As significant as his 2012 check was to Gingrich’s Winning Our Future PAC, paying for the negative ads now swamping South Carolina, Adelson actually became Newt Gingrich’s biggest donor in 2006, pumping a million startup dollars into an otherwise empty and similarly named Gingrich PAC, American Solutions for Winning Our Future. He gave $7.7 million over four years to this group, widely seen as “the springboard” for Gingrich’s presidential campaign, making him the largest donor over those years to any 527 independent committees, the supposedly issue-oriented precursors to the super PACs that now dominate presidential campaign finance. The PAC spent $8 million flying Gingrich in private jets around the country in anticipation of a 2008 candidacy that he flirted with before abandoning, and in the lead-up to this race. It was during these years, and in recent jolting comments, that Gingrich appeared to begin talking to an audience of one, at least when it came to his Middle East views.

One way to test how this generosity might have influenced the always hardline Gingrich is how these views hardened even more after he climbed aboard the Adelson gravy train, who has so far donated nearly $13 million to Gingrich’s two White House-tied PACS, a record in American politics. In the summer of 2005, a year before Gingrich founded American Solutions with Adelson as the initial donor, the ex-speaker candidate penned a treatise for a right-wing U.S. publication called the Middle East Quarterly. Compared to the views he expresses now, which are a full-blown echo of Adelson’s, the Gingrich of six years ago was a moderate, endorsing Obama-like policies he now condemns."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/18/is-gingrich-s-hard-line-on-palestine-paid-for-by-sheldon-adelson.html

[oberliner]

2. No

It's the other way around. Newt was already moving towards a hawkish position.
Adelson determined that Newt, therefore, was the horse to back in the race since Newt's positions were in sync with Sheldon's.

[Scurrilous]

3. ‘Super PAC’ for Gingrich to Get $5 Million Infusion

Last edited Wed Jan 25, 2012, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

<snip>

"A wealthy backer of Newt Gingrich will inject $5 million into a “super PAC” supporting his presidential bid, two people with knowledge of the contribution said on Monday, providing a major boost to Mr. Gingrich as he seeks to fend off aggressive attacks from Mitt Romney, his main Republican rival.

The supporter, Dr. Miriam Adelson, is the wife of Sheldon Adelson, a longtime Gingrich friend and a patron who this month contributed $5 million to the super PAC, Winning Our Future. Dr. Adelson’s check will bring the couple’s total contributions to Winning Our Future to $10 million, a figure that could substantially neutralize the millions of dollars already being spent in Florida by Mr. Romney and Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting him.

Mr. Adelson’s initial check financed a barrage of negative ads against Mr. Romney in South Carolina, helping Mr. Gingrich to an upset victory in Saturday’s Republican primary there. But those attacks, which focused on Mr. Romney’s wealth and private equity career, also drew condemnation from many conservatives, who said Mr. Gingrich’s allies were undercutting free-market capitalism and amplifying class-warfare arguments being made by Democrats and Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

In making the couple’s second $5 million contribution, Dr. Adelson expressed a wish to Winning Our Future officials that the money be used “to continue the pro-Newt message,” one of the people familiar with the contribution said, rather than attack Mr. Romney.

The Adelsons’ contributions on Mr. Gingrich’s behalf illustrate how rapidly a new era of unlimited political money is reshaping the rules of presidential politics and empowering individual donors to a degree unseen since before the Watergate scandals."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/us/politics/super-pac-for-gingrich-to-get-5-million-infusion.html


Pro-Gingrich SuperPac announces $6m FL ad buy tying Mitt Romney to ObamaCare

<snip>

"Flush with $5 million in new cash from the family of gambling czar Sheldon Adelson, the pro-Newt Gingrich SuperPac, Winning Our Future, has announced it's buying $6 million in air time in Florida. Quoting the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, it ties Romney to President Obama's health plan and features a clip of the president smiling as he credits Romney.

Winning Our Future wouldn't disclose where it's running the ads, but $6 million is a significant buy, suggesting that the spot will run on broadcast, cable and radio. In the compressed time-frame leading up to the Jan. 31 election, it's certainly enough to essentially put Gingrich even with the better-funded Romney campaign and the pro-Romney SuperPac."

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/pro-gingrich-superpac-announces-6m-fl-ad-buy-tying-mitt-romney-to-obamacare.html#storylink=cpy

[oberliner]

4. Starting to look like they backed the right horse

Mitt appears to be flaming out.

[Scurrilous]

5. Backed By ‘Shelly,’ Newt Takes S.C.

Success in Florida could determine Gingrich’s, Adelson’s future power

<snip>

"A seemingly mediocre candidate gets suddenly hot and not a little lucky and comes away with a big win to make him one of two competitors for the ultimate victory. But enough about the New York Giants … With his decisive win (42 to 28 percent) in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich now finds himself emerging as the Official Not-Romney™ as he heads to the next two contests, the January 31 Florida primary and the February 4 Nevada caucuses. It seems likely that Gingrich will become the first Republican since 1980 to win in South Carolina and not end up the party’s standard-bearer—the Republican establishment will move to strike him down as they did a month ago, when he was on top of the Iowa polls (remember the all-Gingrich issue of National Review?) and they will probably succeed and Mitt Romney will be the Republican candidate for president.

But if it does end up being Gingrich, it will be in no small part thanks to Sheldon Adelson, the richest Jew in the world (as he has boasted) and an extremely hawkish supporter of Israel. And this is quite important.

Earlier this month, Adelson materially aided Gingrich and politically helped him by changing the narrative when he donated $5 million to a pro-Gingrich group, well over half of which was spent in South Carolina. Now, there is no limit on how much Adelson can give Gingrich: ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, individuals face no cap on how much money they can supply to technically unaffiliated Super PACs. Two things might restrict Adelson. One is outsize use of political capital (his actual capital extends into the multibillions), but Adelson need be less worried, as he has already gotten his money’s worth with his initial “statement.” The other thing might be expectation of a poor return on his investment. Here it’s worth noting that Adelson seems to expect, should Gingrich reclaim the mantle of power (indeed, I can report that money does buy influence in politics) is, shall we say, extremely robust support for the Jewish state. In Connie Bruck’s profile, Adelson is portrayed as basically a single-issue guy. And it’s notable that the only political sentiment Adelson has publicly articulated in recent weeks was to echo Gingrich’s earlier remark about the Palestinians being an “invented” people. If you were a cynic, you might even suggest that Gingrich made that controversial remark precisely in order to wake up his old friend Shelly."

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/88998/back-by-shelly-newt-takes-s-c/

[Scurrilous]

6. Gingrich won't win, and Bibi will be in a lose-lose situation

We'll have to be careful of Obama, who is gritting his teeth to hold back his grudge, and we'll have to be careful of Romney, who won't soon forget the bloodbath prepared for him by Newt and Bibi's friends.

<snip>

"Newt Gingrich won in South Carolina and that's good, very good. What's so good about the victory of an egomaniac who has compared himself to Churchill, de Gaulle and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? It's good because it's bad for the Republican Party, which is drunk not on wine but on tea. That's how the wild party will continue until the summer, and they'll all swallow each other alive.

They will reach the end of the race for Republican presidential candidate bruised and battered, increasing U.S. President Barack Obama's chances of being reelected by the skin of his teeth. In spite of all the disappointment with him, he behaves like a normal and well-meaning human being, and that's no small thing nowadays - both in the United States and here. Another term in office - without the fear of big donors and AIPAC - may repair what has been broken."

<snip>

"With all his character traits and views, Gingrich is the natural candidate of the "International Likud," as we learned in a conversation with journalist Yaron Dekel. Don't we finally deserve to have a president after our own heart, who considers the Palestinians an invented people, brings down the Iranian government with one shot, transfers the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, frees Jonathan Pollard and crushes the elites and the media?

Although Netanyahu is not interfering, we know whom he really likes - anyone but Obama. That's all he requires. The freebie daily newspaper Israel Hayom also wants Gingrich, because that's what the boss wants. The paper's patron, Sheldon Adelson, had good reason for contributing $10 million and rescuing his friend at the last moment. Our Sheldon knows how to gamble, that's his profession. Didn't he bet on Bibi Netanyahu and win? Didn't we lose?"

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/gingrich-won-t-win-and-bibi-will-be-in-a-lose-lose-situation-1.409412

[bemildred]

7. (ABC) Bribes, Chinese Mob Ties Alleged at Casino of Gingrich Money Man (Sheldon Adelson)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101437035

[Jefferson23]

8. Oh my, the Mob, lol. Oh well Newty.

The Republicans are having another debate soon, I think.

[bemildred]

9. Birds of feather and alll that ...

Mr Adelson does seem to be a piece of work, but I think he is getting a bit over his head now.

[Scurrilous]

10. The Man Behind Gingrich’s Money

<snip>

"The trip to Jordan by a group of United States congressmen was supposed to be a chance for them to meet the newly crowned King Abdullah II. But their tour guide had a more complicated agenda.

The guide was Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who helped underwrite trips to the Middle East to win support for Israel in Congress. On this occasion in 1999, as the lawmakers enjoyed a reception at the Royal Palace in Amman, Mr. Adelson and an aide retreated to a private room with the king.

There, the king listened politely as Mr. Adelson sat on a sofa and paged through his proposal for a gambling resort on the Jordan-Israel border to be called the Red Sea Kingdom.

“This was shortly after his father, King Hussein, died, and he was grateful to me,” Mr. Adelson explained later in court testimony, recalling that he had lent his plane when the ailing monarch sought treatment in the United States. “So they remembered.”

The proposal never went anywhere — Mr. Adelson later said he had feared that a Jewish-owned casino on Arab land “would have been blown to smithereens.” But his impromptu pitch to the Jordanian king highlights the boldness, if not audacity, that has propelled Mr. Adelson into the ranks of the world’s richest men and transformed him into a powerful behind-the-scenes player in American and international politics.

Those qualities may also help explain why Mr. Adelson, 78, has decided to throw his wealth behind what had once seemed to be the unlikely presidential aspirations of Newt Gingrich. Now, in no small measure because of Mr. Adelson’s deep pockets, Mr. Gingrich is locked in a struggle with Mitt Romney heading into Florida’s Republican primary on Tuesday."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/us/politics/the-man-behind-gingrichs-money.html