"Here are the 25 Corporate Democrats profiled in Baker's report."

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/mokhiber06162006.html


Corporate Democrats
More Pigs At The Trough


If you wonder why things never change in Washington, look no further than a report released yesterday by Russ Baker's Real News Project.

The report documents 25 corporate Democrats -- corporate consultants with strong ties to the Democratic Party leadership inside the beltway.

"Although establishment Democrats are, by and large, still more skeptical of the corporate agenda than Republicans, they have become strikingly less so," Baker writes. "This has led to the creation of a kind of permanent corporate governance structure that is truly bipartisan. Many of the firms employing Democratic operatives have them working side-by-side with Republicans -- often the same Republicans they go up against in political campaigns. In some cases, a so-called conservative Republican and a so-called liberal Democrat are full partners in the same firm."
-snip-
-----------------------------

the list is alphabetical and starts with Edward Ayoob, mid list - George Mitchell, and last on list Andrew Young.



and our voting is rigged


america is a crime scene

[AndyA]

1. K&R - This is a very important story, one that our Democratic

leadership should respond to.

It sure could answer some big questions about what's going on in America today. Some might think it's time for the tin foil hats to come out, but this really isn't so far out that it's not believable.

Thanks for posting.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. the Democratic Party really is falling apart.

Event he Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus are starting to sell out to big business.

[Crazy Dave]

3. Oh boy...strap yourself in because....

...the majority of folks on DU think that no democrat can do any wrong and for sure there will be someone that's going to reply to this thread and will call you a freeper and say your just using right-wing talking points. I'd bet money on it.

As far as I'm concerned though, good post :thumbsup:

[Rose Siding]

4. There's no difference between the parties

:rofl:

How 'bout we get a just a teensy pinch of control before we sing that song?

[Crazy Dave]

6. One right-winger told me the only difference now is...

...the pro-choice issue. Many dems still support the war effort and do not support gay marriage.

[dsc]

11. That is such a crock of shit

Take one recent example. Two, count them two, Democrats voted to end the filibuster on the amendment which would have banned both same sex marriage and civil unions, and one of those opposed the amendment itself. Conversely 47 Republicans voted to end the filibuster with none of them claiming to oppose the amendment itself. On ENDA the numbers are virtually the same. 44 Democratic cosponsers with less than 10 Republican ones. With the notable exception of New England there was no region of the country in which party didn't determine with near 100% accuracy how a Senator voted on the filibuster. 100% of Western and Southern Republicans voted to end the filibuster. Only John McCain amoung mountain Repubicans voted not to end the filibuster and only Hagel in the midwest and plains. Both of them only opposed the amendment due to states' rights issues. No difference my ass.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dsc]

15. I see you have no answer what so ever

and I am stupid. Sorry but it is a crock of crap (if you prefer) that a party nearly all of whom voted against something is the same as a party nearly all of whom vote for it. On the marriage amendment and enda that is exactly, and precisely the case.

[Crazy Dave]

18. I look at what they're saying when they want to get re-elected

See, it's not that hard to communicate without swearing at somebody. ;)

But it makes you feel good....aw forget it.

[dsc]

19. I am sorry for the profanity

but just how close to reelection would you like them to be? Yes, many Democrats oppose gay marriage and I wish that weren't the case. But as a practical matter the only thing I really have to fear from federal Democrat's opposition is the amendment and nearly all of them oppose that. We won't win marriage in the legislature, just like interracial marriage didn't get won in that arena. What we will win in the legislature is ENDA and hate crimes. On both of those the parties are clearly divided. Virtually every Democrat on our side and virtually every Republican on the other. Party is a better predictor of voting patterns on all three issues than region (except being from New England), gender, or any other usual way of sorting Senators.

[Crazy Dave]

23. It's all good my friend

I take care of my mom, a lifelong Kennedy era democrat who goes to church now and tells me, "I know it's wrong not to let gay people marry but the "bible" says it's wrong" os she signed that petition or a petition against it. She also believed our country was in danger from Iraq but now knows it was a mistake. What to do with her...just kidding, she's the only mom I got.

My rw ex co-worker that made the statement, he goes to church, steals time from his company and hates black people. Nuff, said about him

[dsc]

27. and she is part of the reason

Democratic politicians are so wishy washy on marriage. The elderly vote and have the greatest propensity to oppose same sex marriage. Even my own dad and grandmother are against despite the fact that both I and an aunt are gay and she is in a long term marriage type relationship. If they are opposed then most elderly are going to be as well. I will say that neither my dad nor grandma would dream of signing such a petition or voting on that basis alone. Both are firm Democrats and vigorously opposed the war from day 1.

[Crazy Dave]

16. Somebody must have told a "mommyrater" on me

:P

[dsc]

17. If you are implying I did

I didn't. In point of fact I thought my post had been removed and just got done asking why. I virtually never alert posts directed at me.

[Rose Siding]

12. 147 dems opposed yesterday's war res, THREE repubs opposed it

Looks different to me.

[Crazy Dave]

21. We needed more support against it back in '02 and '03

Saying that you're against it now but were for it back then because you were lied to or too afraid it would hurt your party in '04 if you spoke out against it is a pretty pathetic excuse after 2700 plus American soldiers are dead along with tens of thousands Iraqi civilians.

Give me a break. Even Sean Penn and Maddonna knew there were no WMD's over there and they weren't too afraid to say it.

[dsc]

22. a majority of House Democrats voted against

and the split in the Senate was about 50/50. Had only Democrats voted then there would have been no IWR.

[Crazy Dave]

25. The voting doesn't get much attention from the public and...

...the majority of the politicians count on it. With the exception of a small few there was no serious efforts in my opinion to get more public opinion and support against the war efforts.

[dsc]

26. several did

and others did so in their districts. Kucinich was loudly outspoken at the federal level what is less well known is that Sherrod Brown his neighbor in Congress was outspoken locally. At some point though, the votes are what matters. Not every Congressman has a huge megaphone.

[Crazy Dave]

31. Nobody knew who Kucinich was before the elections

The majority of the marquee, household names in the senate did vote for the war resolution in Oct. 2002


Lieberman (D-CT), Yea

Clinton (D-NY), Yea

Kerry (D-MA), Yea

Biden (D-DE), Yea

Daschle (D-SD), Yea

Edwards (D-NC), Yea

Feinstein (D-CA), Yea

Hollings (D-SC), Yea

Nelson (D-FL), Yea (No big surprise there)

There's many other names too but these are the ones that are pretty well known even in other states that they don't represent. The total vote count for the war resolution: YEAs 77, NAYs 23
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237

[dsc]

36. Which makes the Democratic count 23 to 26

Among the opponents were Kennedy, Dodd, Levin, Leahy, and Graham of Florida.

[Benhurst]

5. Recommended.

[leftchick]

7. K&R

this is must read. Things are getting worse because the dems are becoming as corrupt as the repukes.

two highlights:

Name: Thomas Quinn Firm: Venable Democratic connection: Worked on Democratic Presidential campaigns from Edward Kennedy in 1980 to John Kerry in 2004.

Name: Howard Wolfson Firm: Glover Park Group Democratic connection: Former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton

<snip>

Baker concludes that Democrats have increasingly belied their long-assumed commitment to the little guy and the average American by "cozying up to the money trough."

"Once the Democrats turned into the opposition, key Clinton figures found a home in offering their advertising, public relations and arm-twisting skills to industry trade associations and corporations," Baker writes in the report. "They retained their links to the party, and have lived a kind of dual life ever since, moving effortlessly from corporate work to campaign work and back. The friendliness with big business has escalated under the reign of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has assembled his own so-called 'K Street Cabinet' -- named after the street where the lobbying hordes are headquartered."

... it certainly explains a lot doesn't it?

[BayCityProgressive]

8. there is a difference

between the parties but what is bad is that every year that difference becomes smaller and smaller. Now the election this year is coming up and the Democrats are caling for a rais ein the minimum wage, a balanced budget, and to stop medicare privatization. Good God people...10 yrs ago Republicans could have used this in their campaigns. Every election yr the agenda gets less progressive as we take more money and bribes from corporate America.

[BayCityProgressive]

9. How about

some pro-union legislation, renegotiating trade deals, national health insurance ect.?

[dsc]

20. I would like the name of one

powerful Republican who favors increasing the minimum wage. I don't mean some liberal New England Republican but someone who is either a leader in the Senate or the House.

[napi21]

10. I read the entire list, but the negative comments seem a bit unrea-

sonable to me. It appears that all these people were FORMER chiefs of staff, or advisors, in an administration. The information they learn while working in the WH or Congress becomes a very marketable asset once they are out of power, and I can see many businesses making them offers to work on K Street or in any position where knowing the people or the way things really work would be a big advantage.

I don't really think the problems come from lobbyists knowing the inside people or how the system works, but if the "elected official" lets their influence cloud their judgement when voting. If "I" wanted my side known on say, Planned Parenthood Clinics, I sure would want someone who knew who to talk to and get my side of the argument heard so the Fallwell's and Robertson's of the world wouldn't have the only voice! The problem only occurrs when the person they spoke to votes one side or the other because of offered bribes or threats. When the issue is more specialized, as in the "net neutrality" issue. With our Sens and Reps at an all time "older age", it's important to have knowledgeable people explaine BOTH sides to them, and then have them VOTE FOR what's best for the American people!

[FlaGranny]

33. My take also.

Maybe folks believe they should apply for jobs as dog catchers and pizza delivery after they leave public office or jobs with government. Solving the lobbying problem won't be accomplished with having no Democratic lobbists.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Well done. Conflicts of interest. No one with them, should serve in

public office.

[Rose Siding]

24. None of them do.

[IndyOp]

28. America IS a crime scene. There IS a difference between Dem & Rep and

the entrenched Dems -- the wealthy Dem hierarchy -- must be removed from 'power'.

Aren't you all just a little sick of having to FIGHT the Dems before we get to FIGHT the Rethugs?

This nation has been hypnotized, drenched in myths of patriotism and capitalism and militarism and WE MUST shake the establishment until it gives.

Dennis Kucinich (paraphrased) "What does one say when watching your nation descend, sleepwalking, into the lower realms of Dante's Inferno?"

Howard Dean is battling the wealthy Dem hierarchy.
Sheldon Drobny (Air America) is battling the wealthy Dem hierarchy.
All candidates who want to SPEAK TRUTH must battle the wealthy Dem hierarchy.

We've got to change the 'system' to allow the best of the Dems to lead.

And our voting is rigged -> :applause:

[troubleinwinter]

29. Is Feinstein's war profiteer husband on the list?

Is it Berman?

[Peace Patriot]

30. Andrew Young stabs me in the heart, as does Tom Quinn (if it's the same

Tom Quinn who launched Jerry Brown on the Community College Board in L.A., back when Jerry Brown was an insurgent). Young was Martin Luther King's lieutenant. I met him in Atlanta in 1965, when he was in charge of the northern students who had traveled there to help with the voting rights campaign. In those days, he was a revolutionary, in constant danger of life and limb from the bigoted white establishment. Recently, I saw him on C-Span, in the corridors of power during the Condi Rice hearings. He had two black women leaders on his arm, and the three of them were saying that the Democrats' opposition to Rice was racist and sexist, just like Orrin Hatch was saying inside in the Senate. I was shocked. What sorrow I felt! Andy Young playing with the Bushites! It was sickening.

Quinn (if it's the same) was one of the first political organizers to recognize the power of radio with all those Los Angelenos stuck on the freeways for hours and hours in bumper to bumper traffic, trying to get to work or whatever. But he, too, apparently--like Brown--is all corporate now, big money players, global free piracy and all that.

There is truth in this article. For one thing, it explains the mind-boggling SILENCE of the Democratic Party leadership on Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls--a recent coup (2002-2004). They, too, are beholden to Diebold and ES&S for their power, and maybe they (some of them anyway) like it that way. They see no problem with secret voting counting, as long as they get to pretend to be the "loyal" (indeed, far too loyal) "opposition."

But, generally, the revelations in this article are not news. We on the Left have known this for some time. You saw (or maybe you didn't see) 50,000 of us in Seattle in 1999, protesting CLINTON "free piracy" policy (and getting beaten up and pepper-spray hosed by the Darth Vader cops, on Clinton's behalf, for nothing more than sitting down peacefully in an intersection, in civil protest). (--total slander of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and some Leftist press as well, against those amazingly effective, PEACEFUL protests!).

However, GIVEN THIS SITUATION--of pervasive, although not total, Democratic corporatism--what do we do, in the face of an all-out fascist coup like the Bush junta, which is ripping up our Constitution and engaging in perpetual war, and is utterly destroying our country in every way? Killing tens of thousands of people, torturing people, stealing billions of dollars!

I see no option but to work through the Democratic Party, to, first of all, RESTORE TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS, the most fundamental condition of democracy--something that is still doable at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some potential influence.

We have some good, open government, pro-transparent elections Democrats running for Secretary of State in California (Debra Bowen), Massachusetts (John Bonifaz) and some other states. These are the MOST IMPORTANT campaigns in '06. Bowen's probably the most important (as California goes, so goes the nation).

But equally important is citizen action and pressure on state/local county officials, whoever they are, in their voting system decisions. These NON-TRANSPARENT electronic voting systems are extremely insecure and hackable, very expensive with on-going "servicing" expense, and most people distrust them and are doing their own protest against the machines by Absentee Ballot voting (--not secure enough, since all ballots are scanned into the secretly programmed central electronic tabulators, but still, it's a peoples' protest and it gives investigators a tangible record of the vote).

We've got to start somewhere, and restoring our right to vote seems to me a mighty good place to start. Without the right to vote, we have no power to change anything else.

Remember, Andy?

[Peace Patriot]

32. CORRECTION: Apologies to Tom Quinn (of the insurgent Jerry Brown days)!

It's NOT the same Quinn! The article is referring to Jack Quinn (from Al Gore's staff). My criticism of Jerry Brown stands, though. He's gone corporate.

[troubleinwinter]

37. Jerry Brown

Running for CA Attorney General. Got links or description about how he's gone 'corporate'? Not being snotty here, genuinely interested.

[Peace Patriot]

39. His idea of renovating downtown Oakland is to gentrify it with corps like

the Gap, which buys cotton from the extremely polluted cotton fields in Uzbekistan, ships the dictator's cotton to someplace else to be spun, then ships that to Saipan where extremely poor indentured slaves (young woman from places like Cambodia) sew the clothes, for pittance wages, indentured for their passage, and who have no human or labor rights, thence to our shores where they overcharge us for trendy sweatshirts and jeans. The billionaires who run the Gap (the Fisher family, big movers and shakers in SF/Bay area) also used their billions to purchase and clearcut and poison thousands of acres of redwoods in Mendocino. Ask the Longshoreman's union about Donald Fisher. He's a union buster, and big player in the World Trade Organization. These are the kind of people that Jerry Brown plays with now. He will not be the kind of AG we really need--one who will go after these criminal corporations. This is fairly typical of big city mayors, Dem or Repub. It's not especially shocking in that sense (we've become so jaded!), but it does define the new Jerry Brown. He's a corporate player. And we never get the alternative--a true Leftist who sees to the interests of the majority of people, workers and the poor.

[troubleinwinter]

40. Who do you support as AG for Ca?

[JackRiddler]

34. Of course the parties are different!

If they weren't, the scam would never work. Martin needs Lewis, good cop needs bad, Hardy requires Laurel...

[jody]

35. The corporate party funds both Dem and Repug candidates. They will never

lose an election like that and are guaranteed of bipartisan support for bills that reduce taxes on the one percent who own about 50% of our financial wealth and control every major multinational corporation in the U.S..

[Scout1071]

38. Very, very interesting. nt

[Hidden Stillness]

41. This Explains Their Totally Corporate Agenda

This explains why Democrats so totally lost the interests of the American people, why all their efforts went to corporate-centered trade policy, why they only deregulate, only attempt to "open new markets to capital investment," etc., why they never oppose mergers, monopolies, etc., why they support the Bankruptcy Bill, the "Medicare" (corporate insurance and pharmaceutical industry) Prescription Bill, why they never attempt to pass legislation that even remotely relates to the lives of citizens, and why they think the economy is doing great, when it is not. That explains people like David Gergen, Dick Morris, etc., etc., who go from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, flip from the Government world to the corporate media world, and back again, and not only seem totally comfortable each time, but do not even change their behavior slightly, as if it were all the same muddle, now. That also explains the strange trip taken by Andrew Young some years ago, supposedly "investigating" Far East sweatshops and slave-labor conditions, working on items then shipped here and sold in the U.S., and Young inexplicably found that there was "no abuse" and that eveything was just fine. This would be the explanation. Yet more proof that the corporate influence is destroying our whole country. The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that we have to throw the corporate filth out, and Republicans are the corporate filth.