Just hedging his bets?
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005110713Sen. Clinton to attend fund-raiser near BellevueWednesday, June 21, 2006
Blaine County is shoring up its reputation as a fund-raising stop for heavy hitting politicos from around the country.
As part of a fund-raising campaign for her 2006 bid for U.S. Senate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., will speak at a barbecue near Bellevue on Sunday, July 9, at 1 p.m. The event will be at Tom O'Gara's Silver Spring Ranch.
In a twist on political predictability, O'Gara hosted a 2003 fund-raiser for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign. Vice President Dick Cheney was the event's featured speaker. Local Democrats are, nonetheless, excited about the visit.
"She has many supporters, although I can only speak for Blaine County," said Betty Murphy, chair of the Blaine County Democrats. "We're delighted she's going to be a visitor here."
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According to a biography posted on the Internet by The Aspen Institute, O'Gara is chairman of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based O'Gara Company, focused on solutions for homeland security, counter-terrorism and low intensity conflict.
Posted 08/14/2003 @ 2:36pm
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/bivens_outrage?pid=887Yesterday's post on the megalomania of the Texas GOP noted that the Bush presidential campaign in 2000 was notorious for accepting cheap rides on corporate jets, and suggested candidate Bush "probably will behave just as badly in 2004." As alert reader Norman Scott points out, we can dispense with the "probably":
Vice President Dick Cheney, who like the president is in the midst of a month-long (!) vacation, flew this week to a Wyoming fund-raiser accompanied by two military Blackhawk helicopters, two Air Force-operated luxury jets, and also the Air Force's largest transport, a C-17, which was in turn loaded with five Secret Service vehicles. Cheney mobilized all of this hardware solely to attend a reception at the remote ranch of multimillionaire Tom O'Gara, who made his fortune selling armored military and civilian vehicles. The event raised $175,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign. And it's all profit, because the cost of the massive vice presidential entourage for this campaign stop is billed to you and me, the taxpayers.