WTF? Roemer (Candidate for DNC Chair) funded by Scaife!?

[LeftCoast]

This is just unbelievable! This is a blog posting over at MyDD, but it compiles some damning evidence.

Highlights:

Scaife is known in conservative circles as one of the "Four Sisters." Along with a handful of other uber-rich donors, his funding serves as the backbone to the "think tank" branch of the Republican Noise Machine. He has personally donated over $340 million to conservative causes. Adjusted for inflation, that total rises to over $620 million. And Tim Roemer is one of the people he is funding.

Read the whole post here:

http://www.mydd.com/section/Activism

Holy CRAP!

[chicagojoe]

1. DINO alert !!!!!!!!!!

[calimary]

37. Sounds like a modern-day Trojan Horse.

Watch out who's hiding behind him.

1 (800) 839 - 5276 - remember it for Monday morning - it's the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill Switchboard. Will transfer you to any office you name in the House and/or Senate. Call all the Democrats you can eat and tell 'em NO!!!!!

And anybody who can go to, or contact, their state Democratic Party people, tell THEM the same thing.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Not really surprised my suspicions are confirmed.

Roemer's appearances during the 9/11 commission hearings and media blitzes had me scratching my head at times. Now I know why.

[carolinayellowdog]

3. Paragon of fiscal irresponsibility

Hey,

Josh Marshall pointed out yesterday that Roemer was among a very small handful of Dems voting against Clinton's 1993 budget, the first step in wiping out the deficit. As bad if not worse, he was also among the larger handful of Dems who voted for Bush's 2001 budget, which destroyed our balanced budget.

That clinches it for me; he's a DINO.

CYD

[Dora]

4. Gross. Lost my appetite, and I was just about to eat!

[InvisibleBallots]

5. Scaife is the boss of Republicans and half the Democrats

What's the surprise?

[LeftCoast]

7. I guess I'd just never seen this blatant a connection before

The party's in far worse trouble than I thought, and trust me, I already thought it was in pretty bad shape.

[InvisibleBallots]

34. Jackson Stevens of Little Rock, Arkansas

It's been this way for a very long time.

[madfloridian]

16. I am sorry, but this is not ok.

It can not be rationalized and shrugged away. I thought I was beyond surprise, but this is a shock.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

6. Scaifes are big in PA and fund the conserv. Trib newspaper...

You know, the newspaper that Teresa told to 'shove it'. If this is true, Roemer is worse than a DINO, he's a plant into the Dem party leadership. Scaife family members ONLY back the far right causes.

[madfloridian]

8. He is supported by Pelosi and Reid, our leaders.

That is really scary.

[President Jesus]

9. Scaife's complete history of political donations

as reported by the FEC: http://www.newsmeat.com/media_political_donations/Richard_Mellon_Scaife.php

[Walt Starr]

10. This has a triple effect

Pelosi and Reid support him, thus they are guilty by association!

[LeftCoast]

15. It'd be great to see DUer's calling Reid and Pelosi to hammer this

I'm calling, but it'd help if others would too.

[Eloriel]

39. Would Reid and Pelosi even GET IT?

Or would it have to be explained to them (via their staff)? These Congressional Dems demonstrate to me more and more every single day how utterly, nearly criminally CLUELESS they are -- I have no faith in them at all.

I mean I have this vision of calling one of their offices and get the response, "Scaife? Oh, who is that?" or worse, "Scaife? Oh, that's nice. Thanks for calling." Seriously.

[Cats Against Frist]

43. Darling, I would not be surprised

It's like when you suddenly realize when you turn 26 that all the pro-basketball stars and pop singers are younger than you: one day, you wake up, and realize that politicians, journalists are dumber and less informed than you are.

[jswordy]

11. ROFL! All hail our future leader!

Not a bit surprised. The party is selling its soul down the river. Cheap, too.

[MaineDem]

12. I've talked with some DNC members

Not one of them supports this guy.

[madfloridian]

14. Then why is he getting endorsed by Reid and Pelosi?

Something odd is going on here.

[madfloridian]

13. Mercatus: "The People who have the Ear of the President" Roemer member.

This needs Adobe reader.

http://www.mercatus.org/pdf/materials/805.pdf

The people who have Bush's ear
Bob Davis | Wall St Journal
2004/07/19

In 2001, the new Bush White House sought suggestions for
what government regulations to kill or modify. A small
group called the Mercatus Centre named 44 it didn't like -
among them rules governing energy-efficient airconditioners
and renovations to electric-utility plants.

Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for
its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries
- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying
heavyweights. A year later, the National Association of
Manufacturers failed to persuade George Bush's
administration to embrace even one item on its regulatory
wish list.

Now it's trying to copy Mercatus. "We said, 'Why
were they more successful than we were?'," says Lawrence
Fineran, the manufacturers' vice-president for regulation.
When it comes to business regulation in Washington,
Mercatus (Latin for market) has become the most important
agency you've never heard of. Staffed by veterans of the
White House office that reviews and often scales back
proposed rules, Mercatus, with its free-market philosophy,
has become a kind of shadow regulatory authority. The White
House's top regulator, John Graham, was briefly a member of
Mercatus's board of advisers before taking the government
post.

Many well-known independent Washington advisers, such as
the Brookings Institution or the American Enterprise
Institute, issue analyses of regulations but usually only
on broad themes or prominent issues. Industry lobbyists -
representing, say, car makers or drug companies - circulate
views on more obscure regulations but with the specific
purpose of boosting their sponsors' profits.

Mercatus is a rare hybrid. It is considered an independent
agency because it's part of George Mason University and
gets funding from many sources. But Mercatus issues biting
opinions on dozens of rules, including little-known ones
that only lobbyists usually get excited about...."

[LibertyorDeath]

17. Then he's bought & paid for like most politicians & media

It's more than obvious that the Rethugs & Dem's are
two heads of the same corporate snake.

The Dem's are just the kinder more benign corporatists.
While the rethugs are winner takes all fascist fuck corporatists.

Either way it's all about Power to serve themselves not the Public.

[madfloridian]

18. Koch family seems to head Mercatus.

I am surprised this is getting so little attention, that our congressional minority leaders support this guy.

[Eloriel]

41. Well, here we are back to the DLC

I'll just go ahead and post my usual assortment of links 9with a couple of additions at the bottom):


DLC
The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves. -- Lenin

LINKS - What every DUer and every Dem needs to know about the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4443&forum=DCForumID22&archive=

Let's be REALLY honest about the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=23262&forum=DCForumID60&archive=


Outing the "New Democrats" -- Pukes in Progressive Clothing.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=1435&forum=DCForumID34

Everyone who is a fan of the DLC, needs to read this post,
(Devils Advocate NZ's post is included)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=11323&forum=DCForumID60#114

Kerry, the New Democrats, and American Military Hegemony
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=326015#326061

New Dems formed to get corporate donors, be free from party base ideology
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1346735&mesg_id=1346735&page=

Ask the questions NOW of the DLC and Clinton. Corporate funding.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1372759#1373432


NEW ADDITIONS:
RIGHT WEB: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/ppi.php

Overview of DLC
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/marshall/marshall.php

PPI
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/org/ppi.php


===================================================
WILL MARSHALL: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/marshall/marshall.phpAlthough Marshall calls himself a "centrist," he has associated himself with neoconservative organizations and their radical foreign policy agendas. At the onset of the Iraq invasion, Marshall signed statements issued by the Project for the New American Century calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein, advocating that NATO help "secure and destroy all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," and arguing that the invasion "can contribute decisively to the democratization of the Middle East." (7)

Marshall's credentials as a liberal hawk have been well established by his affinity for other PNAC-associated groups, including the U.S. Committee on NATO and the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Marshall served on the board of directors of the U.S. Committee on NATO alongside such leading neocon figures as Robert Kagan, Richard Perle, Randy Scheunemann, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley, Peter Rodman, Jeffrey Gedmin, Gary Schmitt, and the committee's founder and president Bruce Jackson of PNAC. (8) At the request of the Bush administration, PNAC's Bruce Jackson also formed the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which, with DLC chairman Joseph Lieberman serving as co-chair together with John McCain, aimed to build bipartisan support for the liberation, occupation, and democratization of Iraq. Marshall, together with Robert Kerrey (who coauthored Progressive Internationalism), represented the liberal hawk wing of the Democratic Party on the committee's neocon-dominated advisory board. (9) Other advisers included James Woolsey, Elliot Cohen, Newt Gingrich, William Kristol, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Joshua Muravchik, Chris Williams, and Richard Perle.

On February 25, 2003, Marshall joined an array of neoconservatives marshaled by the Social Democrats/USA-a wellspring of neoconservative strategy-to sign a letter to President Bush calling for the invasion of Iraq. Marshall and others asked the president to "act alone if that proves necessary" and then, as a follow-up to a military-induced regime change in Iraq, to implement a democratization plan. The SD/USA letter urged the president to commit his administration to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning." Others signing the SD/USA letter included Hillel Fradkin, Rachelle Horowitz, Bruce Jackson, Penn Kemble, Robert Kagan, James Woolsey, Nina Shea, Michael Novak, Clifford May, and Ben Wattenberg. (10) (11)


=======================

(OMG! The PNAC/DLC Connection!)No More Moore: DLC Joins the Witch-Hunt
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2784312
Link: http://nypress.com/17/48/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

"We've got to repudiate, you know, the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there sometimes on our party's left... We can't have our party identified by Michael Moore and Hollywood as our cultural values."
— Al From, CEO, Democratic Leadership Council

"You know, let's let Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival fawn all over Michael Moore. We ought to make it pretty clear that he sure doesn't speak for us when it comes to standing up for our country."
— Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute, the think-tank of the DLC

>snip<

In addition to his duties as the president of the PPI, Marshall kept himself busy in the last few years. Among other things, he served on the board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization co-chaired by Joe Lieberman and John McCain whose aim was to build bipartisan support for the invasion of Iraq.

Marshall also signed, at the outset of the war, a letter issued by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) expressing support for the invasion. Marshall signed a similar letter sent to President Bush put out by the conservative Social Democrats/USA group on Feb. 25, 2003, just before the invasion. The SD/USA letter urged Bush to commit to "maintaining substantial U.S. military forces in Iraq for as long as may be required to ensure a stable, representative regime is in place and functioning."

One of just a handful of Marshall's co-signatories on that letter was Bruce Jackson, who also happens to be the head of the PNAC (whose letter Marshall also signed) and the founder of the aforementioned Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Jackson is not only a neo-con of high rank and one of the chief pom-pom wavers for the war effort. He was also a vice president in the weapons division of Lockheed-Martin between 1993 and 2002—meaning that he was one of the implied targets of Bowling for Columbine, which came out in Jackson's last year with the company.

Clearly, Marshall was thinking about the good of the Democratic Party, and not the integrity of his grimy little network of missile-humping cronies, when he and Al From made the curious—and curiously conspicuous—decision to denounce Moore, Hollywood and France at the DLC meeting in early November.

[LeftCoast]

19. Kick for the afternoon crowd

:kick:

[lojasmo]

20. No surprises here

Hello ALGORESUPPORTCENTER!!!! WHat do you think of this?

[AntiCoup2K4]

21. If the man who bought Paula Whore Jones $50,000 nose is in charge....

...of this party. It is OVER and the neocon fascists win. Repukes like to whine about liberals "hating America", but the truth is that it's ASSHOLES like Scaife who truly hate what this country is supposed to be about.

[IStriker]

22. Sorry! I'm not buying this...

I do NOT want to see Roemer become DNC chairman, but I think this is really a stretch to think that Scaife is promoting him. All these links say is that Scaife funds this think tank (and others, as well) and Roemer got a job with the think tank. So? It is probably a bi-partisan think tank and I will bet my bottom $ that Scaife did not handpick any Democrat. Why would somebody who is the godfather of Repuke financing, or at least conservative financing, waste his $ on some moderate Democrat? If Roemer were a conservative, he'd be a Repuke (which would have made his life easier getting elected in Indiana.) Nope, I'm not buying.

[madfloridian]

23. Just read the blog entry, and read about Mercatus.

Then remember that a senior fellow at DLC was a lobbyist for Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition.

Think about it. Look up the CNP of which Roemer is president. An interesting article links from the foreign policy site there.
http://www.cnponline.org/index.html

There is nothing to fear it thinking about things.

[LeftCoast]

24. One last kick for the evening crowd

:kick:

[Rose Siding]

25. Thanks

I would have missed it

[LeftCoast]

26. No prob!

I'm just floored by this and a little surprised more DUers aren't interested. :shrug:

[serryjw]

27. Who are the other 3 sisters?

[LeftCoast]

28. Good question

Wish I had an answer. It would be a good idea to keep an eye on them too! :)

[serryjw]

30. 4 sisters

quote.........
The "Four Sisters"

In 1973, in response to the Powell memo, Joseph Coors and Christian-right leader Paul Weyrich founded the Heritage Foundation. Coors told Lee Edwards, historian of the Heritage Foundation, that the Powell memo persuaded him that American business was "ignoring a crisis." In response, Coors decided to help provide the seed funding for the creation of what was to become the Heritage Foundation, giving $250,000.(1)

Subsequently, the Olin Foundation, under the direction of its president, former Treasury Secretary William Simon (author of the influential 1979 book A Time for Truth), began funding similar organizations in concert with "the Four Sisters"--Richard Mellon Scaife's various foundations, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Olin Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation--along with Coors's foundations, foundations associated with the Koch oil family, and a group of large corporations. (In this article, I will refer to this group of funders as the "Four Sisters Funding Group" or FSFG.)

---------end quote.....

http://my.execpc.com/~dcoy/dfrf/doc-attacklibprofs.html

[LeftCoast]

32. Thank you serryjw!

Great info to have!

[Rose Siding]

29. Here they are

snip>
Roughly a dozen or so foundations provide the lion's share of conservative funding. The John M. Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Scaife Family Foundations, and the Smith Richardson Foundation give so much in tandem that they are known as the "four sisters." Other key funders are the Adolph Coors Foundation, which enabled Weyrich to launch the Heritage Foundation; the Charles G. and David H. Koch Foundations; the J. M., Phillip M. McKenna, Earhart, and Carthage Foundations; and the Claude R. Lambe charitable foundations. If judged by their asset base alone, none of these foundations -- many of them family organizations -- rank in the top 10 American foundations; most don't even make the top 50.

http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V9/40/paget-k.html

[LeftCoast]

31. Thanks Rose

Those names ring some bells don't they?

[nightperson]

33. At least pro-choice Scaife is a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood.

Wish we could say that about our proposed leader Roemer. Ponder that with horror.

Can we look forward to "Lean Left...Draft Scaife!" :freak: ?

[ChiciB1]

35. I've Been Against Roemer from

the very beginning. We need to start emailing, faxing or calling all the Dems in Congress to let them know HOW we FEEL!!

I'm on it ASAP!!

[calimary]

44. KICK! 1 (800) 839 - 5275 - First Thing Monday Morning - TOLL FREE

to Capitol Hill.

[bloom]

36. Ok - that is really creepy.

[proudbluestater]

38. That seals the deal for me. If Dean is not chair, I am GREEN.

[LeftCoast]

40. I'd be ok w/ Dean or Rosenthal

Roemer would be like the fox in the henhouse. Not an acceptable choice.

[LeftCoast]

47. Ack

I meant Rosenberg. I pulled a Bushie. Doh!

[SOS]

48. Rosenberg?

" The war was a good idea. I think the American people were behind the President...The President was resolute and strong in his decision to go to war."

-Simon Rosenberg
speaking with John Gibson on Fox News, Sept. 9th, 2004

[lavendermist]

42. Wow...

Between the links my brother(a lurker here for a long time) has been sending me, and DU, I am really getting an education. The political scene is so much more complex and dishonest than I ever realized. And I am not a young person. So much is so unacceptable. I am amazed.

[genius]

45. This looks like the death of the Party.

[Zhade]

46. Kick for transparency.

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis