GOP: Pay to Play, Payola and Slush Fund-raising.

[salin]

There are multiple scandals breaking out this summer that give a window into today's GOP and the disgusting way they view the public and taxpayer money - free pots of money to give to themselves or to cronies who will then give back to themselves or to the party. Long gone are the days where the question is simply whether or not "donating to candidates buys access." Heck - that question that was often asked in the eighties is so...well, "nineteen eighties!"

Three phenomena (that sometimes overlap) are now bare to the viewing public. But since they are viewed/reported and discussed separately - we miss the opportunity for the pubic to view the whole kit and caboodle as pure corruption. Payola. Pay to Play. Slush-Fundraising. Lets learn these terms - tie them to the current (and all future) scandals - and tie the scandals together with a big bow.

Payola: Using the power of office to grant favors (eg contracts) and receiving direct financial gain from those actions.
Related Scandal: Duke Cunningham gets contracts for friends and big money on sales of property (grossly inflated); he tries to get a pardon from another and gets big lines of credit for property.

Pay to Play: Requiring political donations (or big consulting contracts) in order to grant "favors" using the power of Government.
Related Scandal: Abramoff leveraged both contracts (Indian Dollars) then used to get folks in government to act in ways to benefit his clients; AND he directed clients to give direct political contributions (think Ney) to office holders who then granted "favors" via the power of their office.

Related Scandal: Tom DeLay uses the old "access" line to get corporations to donate to a fund used to elect texas representatives in order to get GOP control of the texas House. However, since texas law prevents corporate donations to such activities - the money gets laundered through one of his other pacs. There appears to be a bit of Payola in this story, whereby DeLay family members (daughter and wife) draw big salaries for doing low level work (e.g. scheduling an event.)

Slush Fund-raising: Granting access to public money (via inflated contracts, or managing money funds) to folks who in turn use that money to make big donations to the party and multiple party candidates.

Related Scandal: Ohio's Bureau of Workman's Comp develops a "emerging managers fund" that gives money to "minority, or small fund managers" - to be managed for the BWC insurance fund. Many funds (esp those that ended up losing $) are big donors - but in one case (Tom Noe), his bank account is in the negative days before he deposits his first $25 Million BWC investment (and siphons about 1.5 Million, off the top, into his account.) and he immediately starts making BIG political contributions up and down the candidate levels.

I would guess there is a lot of Slush Fund-Raising in the DeLay and Abramoff stories as well. Including the insertion into the energy bill that earmarks 1.3 Billion to a small group in his district - and for which the services are rather unclear.

Embrace these terms and their scandals. Use them frequently. Relate the scandals and the terms together - as they make clear the tapestry of corruption in the GOP - and the GOP view of public dollars as sources to get rich off of by their cronies and donors.

[barbaraann]

1. Excellent post.

I wish we had a separate GD-Scandals and Corruption forum. Slowly but surely the breathtaking evil of the GOP machine is coming to light.

It would be handy to have a forum with scandals to point to when discussing or posting about politics outside of DU. The average American just doesn't understand how widespread the GOP Culture of Corruption is.

[salin]

2. I find the Ohio stories particularly compelling

sort of like getting a peek inside their corrupt playbook.

A recurring name that was bugging me was one of the chief folks doing the investments for the BWC - who is now "Director of Investments" for the much larger pot of Ohio money the School Employees Retirement System (SERS). Name: Robert Cowman. Did some digging this morning on a thread in GD Politics. I found it interesting - and rather alarming (that he is where he is now - and that he has so much access to so much public money - 20% of the $48 Billion is NOT managed in-house (leaves about $10 billion to invest) - and how/who appointed him to this position - and why isn't anyone calling for an audit of investments /performance for the time during his tenure there (at least since the end of 2004.)?

Sadly - no one is paying attention - at DU or in the msm.

[barbaraann]

3. No one wants to face the fact that the GOP plans to steal everything.

Absolutely everything. And that they will utterly destroy what's left of the Middle Class if they are not stopped.

If they clean out the treasuries of the larger states and the federal government, then the fiscal health of the smaller states won't matter and the Global Elite(s) can take over.

I hope the excellent work that the Toledo Blade and others are doing in Ohio will spread throughout the country.

[salin]

4. place i would be digging is florida.

[barbaraann]

5. No Toledo Blade in Florida.

:-(