Back to Basics

From the Weekly Standard:

Businessman Frank Vandersloot, the CEO of Melaleuca, has been targeted by the Obama campaign after donating money to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. . . . Mr. VanderSloot was one of the eight, smeared particularly as being ‘litigious, combative and a bitter foe of the gay rights movement.’”
The attacks are working. Vandersloot revealed in an interview on Fox News that his business practice is being hurt by the attacks from the Obama team.
“Those people that I know well weren’t affected by this [attack],” said Vandersloot. “But for people who didn’t know me, who are members of our business or customers, and they were reading this, then we got a barrage of phone calls of people cancelling their customer memberships with us.”
“Really?,” the Fox News host asked. “How many did that?”
“A couple hundred that we can track,” Vandersloot replied.
Again, the host asked, “Really? Do you have any grounds to sue?”
“I suppose we do,” Vandersloot said. The businessman says he’s been accused of being anti-gay, an accusation he says that couldn’t be further from the truth. . . .

Is it serious that people who oppose Obama must be doing this because they are anti-gay?

And yet Team Obama wonders why the world laughed when they sent out a press release saying the President was going to start his campaign next week?

From the Daily Mail:

Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than all five Presidents since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.

Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.

The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.

Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.

Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in 1980, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.

Remember though, the vast preponderance of Obama’s time is spent doing things other than campaigning — like golfing and cracking jokes while America goes to fiscal hell.

It’s not surprising that Obama has held more election fundraisers than the five presidents who preceded him. That’s a paltry number if you consider he’s already increased the debt more in less than one term than was accumulated in the first 219 years of the nation’s existence.

While Nancy Pelosi is busy trying to amend the US Constitution to disallow things like super-PACs — those fundraising vehicles President Obama has referred to as threats to democracy — a pro-Obama PAC is lagging big time. As a result they’re calling in the heavy artillery:

The main super PAC backing President Barack Obama’s re-election has asked former President Bill Clinton to step in to court donors whose reluctance to give has left its fundraising far behind its Republican counterparts, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Clinton is likely to assist the super PAC, called Priorities USA Action, whose anemic fundraising total thus far has unnerved the Obama campaign and senior Democrats.

The super PAC reported Friday that it had raised $4.6 million in the first three months of the year, including $2.5 million in March. Since it was created a year ago, Priorities and a related nonprofit had raised $10 million through the end of February.

By contrast, the leading Republican super PAC, American Crossroads, announced it had raised $100 million for the 2012 elections along with its sister group, Crossroads GPS.

Almost a quarter of the money raised by Priorities USA has come from Bill Maher. The cash will now be used to fight against those Republicans who say nasty things about women or something.

In addition to his super-PAC duties, Clinton will also be campaigning with Obama in the coming week.

Priorities USA Action might be having problems, but when it comes to campaign fundraising, Team Obama continues to enjoy the fruits of nonstop campaigning that are a hallmark of this presidency.

To put this amount of money in terms Edwards can more easily relate to, his campaign has been forced to give back the equivalent of about 105,000 bottles of HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo.

From Politico:

John Edwards’s presidential campaign has now repaid taxpayers the more than $2.1 million in federal public matching funds he received after leaving the 2008 race — writing a check just before the former Democratic candidate’s criminal trial on campaign finance violations kicks off Thursday with jury selection.

The Federal Election Commission confirmed on Tuesday to The Associated Press it received the money from Edwards’s campaign. On March 12, the FEC upheld its ruling from last year that Edwards was wrongly given the money after he dropped out of the race in the midst of his sex scandal with Rielle Hunter. Edwards was given 30 days to send the money to the U.S. Treasury.

Jury selection for Edwards’ trial begins tomorrow. What kind of swingers club for adulterous mythomaniacal ambulance-chasing political cheats are they going to have to comb to find a jury of this guy’s peers?

The Obama campaign always tells us that we have a “right” to all kinds of free stuff, unless that stuff happens to come from their campaign:

The Obama campaign’s latest report for one of its joint DNC accounts shows that Chicago spent about $10,000 in February alone on nail polish designed by Richard Blanch Of Le Métier De Beauté. The campaign is, in turn, selling the nail polish in a three bottle set along with a collectable bag to supporters for $40 dollars.

For $40 an Obama supporter could instead buy four months worth of birth control at Target. Or a guy could give this nail polish to a woman and if she’s smart it’ll make her not want to have sex with him. Either way there’s a contraceptive effect.

From the National Journal:

In fact, Obama’s reelection campaign has a split personality when it comes to the general election. One side is confident and growing more so about the turbulent GOP primary, an improving U.S. economy, and better numbers for Obama in swing states. The other side harbors fears bordering on paranoia about massive spending by the GOP and outside super PACs for the party’s nominee.

“There is already unprecedented super-PAC spending going on,” Messina said. “There will be super-PAC spending in key states against us. We have to be prepared for that.”

To prepare for it, Obama’s campaign has put the rest of the Democratic Party on a starvation diet. Messina and senior White House adviser David Plouffe (Obama’s 2008 campaign manager) have told top Democrats that they won’t receive any cash transfers from Obama’s campaign or the Democratic National Committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sought commitments for $30 million, the amount distributed to them in the 2008 and 2010 election cycles. Not this time.

Messina said that the campaign fears outside groups will devote upward of $500 million to anti-Obama super-PAC TV ads as soon as the GOP nominee (likely to be Romney) is decided. By comparison, GOP nominee John McCain spent $333 million on his campaign, and outside groups spent $26 million supporting him. Obama spent $730 million in that campaign, and outside groups spent $88 million attacking him. . . .

Reid and Pelosi, according to Democrats aware of the sit-down with Plouffe and Messina, took their medicine without complaint. Democrats close to the situation said that the leaders emerged feeling that Team Obama was in full-blown panic mode about the need for campaign cash this fall. “They are just freaked out about super-PAC spending,” said one of Pelosi’s top allies. . . .

What happened to “spread the wealth around”?

From Politico:

President Barack Obama has a bleak message for House and Senate Democrats this year when it comes to campaign cash: You’re on your own.

Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have privately sought as much as $30 million combined from Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee — a replay of the financial help they received from Obama in 2008 and 2010.

But that’s not going to happen, top Obama aides Jim Messina and David Plouffe told Reid and Pelosi in back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the high-level talks. It was a stark admission from a presidential campaign once expected to rake in as much as $1 billion of just how closely it is watching its own bottom line.

Messina and Plouffe told the two Hill leaders that there would be no cash transfers to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from OFA or the DNC, at least not before Election Day, the sources said.

According to Politico, Obama will have similar campaign moratoriums on his participation in fundraisers for, and appearances with, congressional Democrats. That may not be entirely unwelcome news for some.

I hear they’ve even canceled plans for a “Joe Biden dunk tank” fundraiser at the rallies of various swing-district Dems. Bummer.

In other fundraising news, Team Obama has called in some reinforcements:

Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to make joint appearances with President Barack Obama at a series of fundraisers, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The 42nd and the 44th presidents will appear together at events in the coming months in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, according to one of the people. The New York fundraiser is aimed at donors in the financial services industry [a nice way of saying "Wall Street bankers" without saying it - DP], said the person, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they hadn’t been authorized to talk about the events.

Here is yet another example.

Jim Rogers, the co-chairman and lead fundraiser for the Democratic National Convention host-committee, is well versed in the art of political cronyism.

Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy Corp., one of the largest utility corporations in the country, has given generously to Democratic politicians over the years. Along with his wife, Mary Anne, he has contributed more than $210,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2008, more than double what the couple has given to Republicans. Of that figure, more than $150,000 went to the Democratic National Committee (DNC); $19,200 went to President Obama.

Rogers is co-chairing the host committee with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx (D), who was elected to a second term in November 2011. Rogers and his wife both contributed $8,000 to Foxx’s campaign, the maximum allowed under state law. . . .

Just as Rogers has helped fund Democratic politicians, they, in turn, have helped steer massive amounts of federal funding to Duke Energy. The 2009 stimulus package, for instance, was a boon for the company: Duke received federal grants totaling $230.4 million for a number of “green” energy projects including “smart grid” development and wind energy storage.

According to Recovery.gov, Duke created 196.6 jobs as a result of the grants. . . .

You know all that Democratic talk about getting big, dirty money out of politics?

Never mind.

Via Reuters:

National fundraising committees for the Democratic and Republican parties, President Barack Obama, and other major politicians have declined to return campaign donations totaling $1.8 million from Houston financier R. Allen Stanford, now on trial for allegedly masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

The court-appointed receiver charged with returning money to Stanford investors obtained a federal court order last June against five Democratic and Republican campaigns. But they haven’t returned the money. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee received $950,500; the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), $238,500; the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $200,000; the Republican National Committee $128,500, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) $83,345.

The contributions to the campaign committees and candidates were given by Stanford himself, Stanford executives, and a political action committee associated with the financier.

The receiver, Ralph Janvey, is also trying to claw back money Stanford donated to individual politicians. The list of his recipients reads like a who’s who of Washington, including President Obama – who received $4,600 from Stanford in his 2008 election campaign – Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), the chairman of the NRCC, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. Janvey is seeking these funds informally, and has not filed lawsuits.

Money has already been returned by House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. John McCain, among others. But the roughly $154,000 recovered from elected officials is a fraction of the $1.8 million still outstanding.

The $4,600 Janvey is seeking from the Obama campaign reflects only direct contributions from Allen Stanford himself. The total may be as high $31,000 when Stanford’s contributions to Obama’s other campaign committees are included, along with money from senior Stanford executives, and the Stanford Financial Group’s now defunct PAC, according to campaign finance records and an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

…The receiver first wrote to the Obama campaign five days after it gave the money to charity in 2009, asking that it instead be returned to investors.

“If you have already donated such amounts to charity, we request you consider donating an equal amount to the Receivership,” Janvey wrote back on February 23, 2009. “By returning such amounts to the Receivership Estate, you will help reduce the losses suffered by victims of the alleged fraud.”

More tainted cash out West:

Federal investigators have reportedly been handing down subpoenas in the case of a Nevada political operative who allegedly made illegal campaign contributions to politicians like Sen. Harry Reid, and who is also embroiled in a heated legal battle with former business partners that involves accusations about everything from murder threats to jewel thefts.
The case began with a lawsuit by Harvey Whittemore’s former business partners, Thomas Seeno, his brother Albert Seeno Jr. and his son Albert Seeno III, who accused Whittemore of misappropriating and embezzling over $40 million from Wingfield Nevada Group Holding Company LLC, a limited liability company in Nevada.

Whittemore is a lawyer and former lobbyist with political ties all over the state, and he and his wife have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats and Republicans alike, including Sen. Harry Reid (D), Rep. Shelley Berkley (D), Sen. Dean Heller (R) and former Sen.

Super PAC-men: Obama’s bundlers gone wild!
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012

The White House didn’t blow a dog whistle for deep-pocketed liberal donors on Monday. No, the administration whipped out a supersized vuvuzela. Blaring message: Let loose the campaign finance-bundling hounds of super PAC war!

President Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, who served as White House deputy chief of staff for operations before assuming 2012 re-election duties, announced the super PAC super-flip-flop in a mass e-mail to supporters and a blog post published on the left-wing Huffington Post website. In a related conference call to major campaign finance bundlers, Messina encouraged these high-dollar donors to start funding Priorities USA Action. That’s the Democratic super PAC founded by former White House staffers Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.

Super PACs and campaigns are barred from coordinating with each other. Nevertheless, Messina said that “senior campaign officials as well as some White House and Cabinet officials will attend and speak at Priorities USA fundraising events.” Of course, they “won’t be soliciting contributions.” Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

This brazen about-face for Team Obama is a goldmine of campaign lies, contortions and epic hypocrisy. Let us count the ways.

– A bundle of contradictions. “Bundling” is the rustling up of aggregate contributions from friends, business associates and employees, a practice to circumvent individual donation limits that Obama has long condemned. When he announced his presidential intentions in 2007, candidate Obama decried “the cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who’ve turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” He indignantly singled out “the best bundlers” who get the “greatest access” to power.

Last week, Obama acknowledged raising at least $74 million through his team of big-time bundlers who have been showered with access, tax dollars and plum patronage positions. This elite group of Hollywood celebrities (such as open-borders actress Eva Longoria), political cronies (such as Chicago bagman Louis “The Vacuum” Susman) and politically correct businessmen (such as bankrupt Solyndra investor George Kaiser) now totals a whopping 445 gold-card members.

– The roar of the revolving door. In his Monday announcement, Messina bragged about how the White House has enacted “sweeping” reforms to “close the revolving door between government and lobbyists.” In truth, the administration has widened the carousel and removed the brakes. The Obama-cheerleading Fishwrap of Record (The New York Times) itself identified at least 15 bundlers “involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies.”

Moreover, “at least 68 of 350 Obama bundlers for the 2012 election or their spouses have served in the administration in some capacity; at least 250 of the bundlers visited the White House, and another 30 have ties to companies that conduct business with federal agencies or hope to do so in the future,” according to a recent iWatch News report. Several first-time 2012 bundlers already have snagged administration posts:

– Norma Lee Funger, of Potomac, Md., who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama, was appointed last month to the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

– Glenn S. Gerstell, of Washington, D.C., who bundled the same amount, was appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Commission last fall.