Obama just lied about never taking money from Lobbyists

[inthebrain]

At least that what I think he just said in his speech.

I don't have a dog in the Hillary vs Obama wars. I'm not posting this as a slam but that dude isn't telling the truth if I heard what I think I just heard.

http://whitehouseforsale.org/candidate.cfm?CandidateID=C0009

[CTD]

1. Check your facts

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080204/pl_bloomberg/apnpwl7xnjik_1

Obama has take $0 from lobbyists and has no lobbyists working on his campaign.

[inthebrain]

4. I did

He has taken money from 10.

Not to mention the 359 bundlers.

[sandnsea]

6. Hillary takes money from 10,000

But let's get all in a tizz about 10.

:crazy:

[nonconformist]

9. The problem is he's lying about it. nt

[sandnsea]

15. Those are bundlers

And he's never denied he takes money from bundlers. Lawyers bundle for Edwards too. The stupid things people find to pick at Obama over, it's wacko.

[inthebrain]

23. Man, pull your head out of the clouds

They are lobbyist Bundlers.

There is a seperate line for Bundlers.

They are lobbyists.

[inthebrain]

11. I'm not going on a tizz about anything

Obama just claimed on national TV that his campaign is not funded by Lobbyists. He had 10 lobbyist bundlers.

I know Hillary has her lobbyists as well. Twice the amount.

[Usrename]

39. Who are the lobbyists?

Do you know who they are and who the are registered with?

[Emit]

44. Here's a list

http://action.citizen.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3741&t=WhiteHouseForSale.dwt

On edit, here's more info: http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/01/11/obamas-registered-lobbyist-bundlers

[Usrename]

47. Who do they lobby, and who do they do it for?

It seems like a simple question to me. Maybe you just don't understand. If any of these folks area lobbyists, then there must be some evidence that they lobbied somebody on behalf of somebody. Who did they lobby, and for what?

Whoever determined that these folks are lobbyists must have some proof. Where is it? Just curious if you have ever seen any.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

7. Lobbyists ran entire state campaigns for him !

You are completely wrong!

[papau]

8. no lobbyists working on Onama campaign? Nonsense - Obama lies - links below

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sen.-obama-finesses-his-lobbyist-ties-2007-04-19.html
three of Obama’s top fundraisers, who each have raised more than $50000 for his campaign since January, were registered as lobbyists last year,


Obama co-chair a state lobbyist - First Read - msnbc.com
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/02/544600.aspx




http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/23/in_illinois_obama_dealt_with_lobbyists/
Obama's lobbyist relationships questioned - The Boston Globe
Sep 23, 2007 When Barack Obama and fellow state lawmakers in Illinois tried to expand healthcare coverage in 2003 with the "Health Care Justice Act," they drew fierce opposition from the insurance industry, which saw it as a back-handed attempt to impose a government-run system.

Over the next 15 months, insurers and their lobbyists found a sympathetic ear in Obama, who amended the bill more to their liking partly because of concerns they raised with him and his aides, according to lobbyists, Senate staff, and Obama's remarks on the Senate floor.

The wrangling over the healthcare measure, which narrowly passed and became law in 2004, illustrates how Obama, during his eight years in the Illinois Senate, was able to shepherd major legislation by negotiating competing interests in Springfield, the state capital. But it also shows how Obama's own experience in lawmaking involved dealings with the kinds of lobbyists and special interests he now demonizes on the campaign trail.





Obama "has a lot of lobbyists who are leading his campaign here in South Carolina ... said the campaign has no problem with lobbyists volunteering to work, ...
www.startribune.com/politics/national/president/14014886.html

[jackson_dem]

2. He doesn't now

But he takes $2,300 checks from corporate executives and money from spouses of lobbyists. In Illinois a substantial percentage of his funding came from lobbyists.

[papau]

3. He drops the fact he takes money from state lobbyists & families of Federal lobbyists and just says

"Lobbyists" - meaning registered Federal lobbyists have to give him money through their firms and families - not directly.

[inthebrain]

5. He has taken from ten lobbyists

http://whitehouseforsale.org/candidate.cfm?CandidateID=C0009

These are the people his own campaign released.

[papau]

10. I gues the 10 are like his pushing the "wrong" button on those 3 RW votes in Illinois :-)

[Emit]

12. If this is the case, why doesn't Hillary slam him on this? n/t

[inthebrain]

14. She's really in no position to

I'm not trying to make this into a Hillary vs Obama thing.

I'm just pointing out that he lied when he said this. I really wish he would stop doing it.

[Emit]

17. I understand and it's been a concern of mine as well

I'm not trying to make this a Hillary v Obama thing either, but you'd think she'd call him out on a lie, regardless of the fact that she's got more lobbyists' on her side. Just sayin' :shrug:

[sandnsea]

18. Because it's not the case, the OP "misled" everybody

That's a site about bundlers, not lobbyists. Bundlers are disclosed because of Obama's legislation so the truth is you wouldn't even have this info if it weren't for him.

[inthebrain]

22. What?

You're conflating and offering spin.

Calm down.

Obama has claimed he has not taken and money from Lobbyists. It's really that simple.

He is not telling the truth. He's LYING about it.

I'm not out to leg hump any of the candidates and I hate when they lie to me. I will never fucking accept that from a politician of ANY fucking stripe. Obama just lied.

He needs to stop.

[Emit]

29. Well, technically, I think the OP is correct

... the Illinois Democrat’s policy of shunning money from lobbyists registered to do business on Capitol Hill does not extend to lawyers whose partners lobby there.

Nor does the ban apply to corporations that have major lobbying operations in Washington. And the prohibition does not extend to lobbyists who ply their trade in such state capitals as Springfield, Ill.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Sacramento, though some deal with national clients and issues.

“Clearly, the distinction is not that significant,” said Stephen Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on campaign issues.

“He gets an asterisk that says he is trying to be different,” Weissman said. “But overall, the same wealthy interests are funding his campaign as are funding other candidates, whether or not they are lobbyists.” ...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/22/681/



Obama’s registered lobbyist bundlers
By Artificial Intelligence on January 11, 2008 at 11:54 PM in Uncategorized

“While pledging to turn down donations from lobbyists themselves, Senator Obama raised more than $1 million in the first three months of his presidential campaign from law firms and companies that have major lobbying operations in the nation’s capital,” Dan Morain wrote April 23, 2007, in the Los Angeles Times.

... … But overall, the same wealthy interests are funding his campaign as are funding other candidates, whether or not they are lobbyists,” Morain wrote.

Public Citizen (WhiteHouseForSale.or) lists nine of Sen. Obama’s fundraising bundlers as registered lobbyists who have collected in the neighborhood of $1.5 million for his campaign—in addition to their own personal contributions.

Frank M. Clark is chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation. As an Obama bundler, Clark raised $200,000+. FEC records show that on January 26, 2007, he personally contributed $2,100 to Obama for America.

~snip~

UPDATE: Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank wrote July 4, 2007, in the Dissident Voice.

“Barack, for the second quarter in a row, has surpassed the fundraising prowess of Hillary Clinton. To be sure small online donations have propelled the young senator to the top, but so too have his connections to big industry. The Obama campaign, as of late March 2007, has accepted $159,800 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant operator.

“The Illinois-based company also helped Obama’’s 2004 senatorial campaign. As Ken Silverstein reported in the November 2006 issue of Harper’s, ‘ is Obama’s fourth largest patron, having donated a total of $74,350 to his campaigns. During debate on the 2005 energy bill, Obama helped to vote down an amendment that would have killed vast loan guarantees for power-plant operators to develop new energy projects the public will not only pay millions of dollars in loan costs but will risk losing billions of dollars if the companies default.’”


http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/01/11/obamas-registered-lobbyist-bundlers/

[sandnsea]

30. Joshua Frank

I don't read anything by him or anything that anybody who would quote him has to say. Sorry.

He has done more to clean up politics than any other candidate did, including John Edwards. Yes people still give money and that's because the supreme court has ruled you can't prevent people from giving money. Some people hold fundraisers and bundle it. The reason you know who they are is Obama's legislation. That's fact.

People are spinning against the person who wants to work with Feingold to clean it up which will leave us with the DLC centrist who likes things exactly the way they are. I don't understand it.

[Emit]

31. I just want to know who's behind our candidates

Is that a crime? Should I just put blinders on?

[sandnsea]

37. Obama does too, that's why he passed legislation

to make sure you do.

[Emit]

40. Obama has disclosed more information about his bundlers than any other candidate

but, not enough, IMHO. He doesn't supply the employment data of his bundlers and so tracking agenices' origins and their potential influence in congress is not readily disclosed.

[inthebrain]

34. That's great if he wants to do that but he still shouldn't lie

about not taking money from lobbyists or try to obfuscate and make it look like all his money comes from Joe Schmoe flipping burgers or working in gravel pits.

[sandnsea]

36. He is not taking money from lobbyists

and 90% of his money comes from people making less than $100 donations. Bundlers get $2300 donations at a shot. Completely different. He never said people weren't fundraising for him, that's just ridiculous.

And what do you think you gain from trashing him? Hillary??? Why? I don't get it.

[inthebrain]

41. You're a knee jerk reactionary

I just gave you a VERY WELL RESECTED source showing you that he does in fact take money from lobbyists.

It's FACT!!!!

Total Raised: $101,429,497

Bundlers: 359

Lobbyist Bundlers: 10

Do you honestly think Joe Schmoe working at a gravel pit, flipping burgers or digging ditches is giving money to this guy?

Since you didn't even read the list of these Bundlers, and Bundlers do buy influence, I'll show you who one of the "Home Makers" are. Who is "Homemaker" Daveen Fox?


Employer:
ACF Property Management

State:
CA

Industry
Real Estate

Status for 2008:
Bundler for Barack Obama, raised more than $200,000.00

Name Disclosed By Candidate:
Y

Registered Federal Lobbyist:
N

Partnered With:
Daveen Fox


Now let's look at who here husband is?

Oh look!!!!

It's Alan C Fox listed directly above her. What does he do?

Employer:
ACF Property Management

State:
CA

Industry
Real Estate

Status for 2008:
Bundler for Barack Obama, raised more than $200,000.00

Name Disclosed By Candidate:
Y

Registered Federal Lobbyist:
N

Partnered With:
Daveen Fox


Will you look at that. You can be the wife of a guy who owns a Real Estate company.

[BlackVelvet04]

13. His lying is becoming pretty commonplace.....

can't wait for the spin on how this lie couldn't possibly be his fault.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

16. Now he is open for investigation. K&R

They have to talk abut his inconsistencies now.

[inthebrain]

19. DOWN BOY!!!!

LOL

Who's "they"?

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

20. The media.

The free pass is probably over.

[inthebrain]

25. The Link I posted is not a major media outlet

It's an organization that keeps track of who's giving money to who.

[nonconformist]

21. The media. nt

[StevieM]

24. The rules only apply if you're Hillary (eom)

x

[Tennessee Gal]

26. Yep, I heard it. He definitely lied.

[Hekate]

27. "I'm not posting this as a slam" -- yes you are, and why? nt

[rodeodance]

28. cause he wanted to point out that Obama is not the Savior many make him out to be.

[inthebrain]

33. LOL no politicians are saviors

The liberation of the proletariat will come from the proletariat. Not Obama, Hillary, McCain, Romney or Huckabee.

[Hekate]

45. "The liberation of the proletariat"? Are you quite sure you are a Democrat? Is there another...

...Party closer to your lofty ideals?

Hekate

[inthebrain]

32. Maybe because you're a little sensitive

I don't like when politicians lie to me. REGARDLESS of their party affiliation.

If Obama really means what he says his supporters should hold him accountable and tell him to give that money back. In his speech tonight he also lied that his campaign is funded by average ordinary Americans. He's raised over 100 MILLION dollars in campaign cash. That would mean that a third of this country would have to have given him 1 dollar.

The folks listed that have contributed to his campaign are not average every day Joe Schmoe American slaving away in a gravel pit.

[Emit]

35. Pres candidates already have recruited more lobbyist-fundraisers in this election cycle than in '04

January 29, 2008

Number of Lobbyist-Fundraisers
for Presidential Candidates
Already Exceeds 2004 Totals

Presidential candidates already have recruited more lobbyist-fundraisers in this election cycle than they did for the entire 2004 campaign.

To date, candidates still in the race have recruited 142 federal lobbyists to serve as “bundlers” (a term for fundraisers whose success at raising money is monitored by the candidates). In the 2004 cycle, the candidates who disclosed their big fundraisers’ names – George Bush, John Kerry and Howard Dean – had a total of 136 lobbyist-bundlers.

Republican John McCain has more lobbyist-fundraisers than any other candidate, with nearly twice as many as runner-up Rudy Giuliani. Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton has the most lobbyist-fundraisers, which is not surprising because her chief opponents have adopted a policy of not accepting help from current lobbyists. Barack Obama and John Edwards each have bundlers who previously registered as lobbyists and are counted in this study.


~snip~

Public Citizen maintains a clearinghouse of the presidential campaigns bundlers at www.WhiteHouseforSale.org. The website explains differences in candidates’ reporting policies and Public Citizen’s methodology for classifying fundraisers as bundlers.

~snip~

For lists of Bundlers for all candidate who have registered as Federal Lobbyists, continue at link:


http://action.citizen.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=3741&t=WhiteHouseForSale.dwt

[ProSense]

38. You're not posting it as a slam, but your spin on it is inaccurate

The site doesn't say the 10 are registered lobbyists or just people who work for companies that lobby:

Barack Obama, Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, doesn't take money from registered lobbyists, although he received $86,282 from employees of firms that lobby, according to the center.

link

Anybody can be a bundler. Look at the first bundler on the list at your link: employer, homemaker. Who is she lobbying for, homemakers?

[inthebrain]

42. They are registered lobbyists

One of the Homemakers is the wife of a guy who owns a real Estate Company.

Alan C. Fox CA ACF Property Management

Daveen Fox CA Homemaker

I'm not offering any spin. I don't like being lied to by politicians. Apparantly you and many other folks are more than accepting of this practice.

My link is from a highly respected source not some hack journalist from the AP that didn't do his homework. And taking money from people that "work for the lobbiest" is the oldest fuckin trick in the book to donate under someone elses name.

That way you can exceed the maximum amount you can give over a certain period of time.

[Emit]

43. lobbyists versus bundlers

According to Laura McCleary of Public Citizen, Director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division:

"... It's an important distinction ... the lobbyist who is acting as a campaign fundraiser is often a Washington insider who has a variety of clients in their portfolio and they are particularly well placed to pivot between corporate interests and government institutions in order to win loopholes, earmarks and other goodies for their clients ... The bundler situation is far from satisfactory ... A bundler who is a corporate officer like a CEO for a major corporation and is acting as a fundraiser for a Presidential campaign probably has interests that are fairly similar to any lobbyist in terms of winning favors for that company..."

http://www.fair.org/audio/counterspin/CounterSpin081007.mp3
http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/

[amborin]

46. Obama's relationship with lobbyists:

December 2, 2007 Sunday 8:38 AM GMT

Obama's Complex History With Lobbyists

BYLINE: By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer

SECTION: POLITICAL NEWS

LENGTH: 1080 words

DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD Ill.


Barack Obama
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played poker and basketball with lobbyists when he was a state senator. He took their campaign donations and worked with them to write legislation. But he also helped pass ethics laws to reduce sharply their influence.

A look at Obama's seven years in the Illinois Legislature reveals a complicated relationship with lobbyists particularly for someone who now makes criticism of lobbyists a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

The Illinois Democrat, now a first-term U.S. senator, argues that they have too much power in Washington. He has sworn off taking donations from Washington lobbyists and political action committees, while assailing rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for not doing the same.

"It's time we had a president who tells the drug companies and the oil companies and the insurance industry that while they get a seat at the table in Washington, they don't get to buy every chair. Not any more," he said earlier this year.

Obama hasn't always been so adamant about lobbyists and their money.

About 40 percent of the money he raised as a state senator came from PACs, corporations and unions, including organizations with a financial stake in legislation he was sponsoring.

For instance, Obama, who often sponsored legislation on health care and prescription drugs, took $5,650 from health-related groups, $8,900 from insurance groups and $3,000 from a lobbyist representing drug companies.

Meanwhile, PACs contributed 3.2 percent of the $490,285 he raised for an unsuccessful congressional bid in 2000, and 8 percent of the $15 million he raised for his U.S. Senate race in 2004.

But while in the state legislature, Obama was a relatively small fish when it came to Illinois political money.

He usually got donations of a few hundred dollars or maybe $1,000 in a state where interest groups routinely give key officials tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

Disclosure reports show he rarely accepted gifts or meals from lobbyists, even though there was no limit on such freebies until Obama helped pass a law establishing one. For him, a big gift was $50 worth of tickets to a Rembrandt exhibit from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Some lobbyists were even a bit hazy on who he was, spelling his name "O'Bama" in their reports.

Several Illinois lobbyists said Obama was always willing to hear them out, even if he was on the opposite side of an issue.

"His door was always open. There weren't many times we agreed on things, but he would listen," said Jay Dee Shattuck, a lobbyist for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, a group that didn't make campaign donations to Obama.

In some instances, Obama didn't just listen to lobbyists. He worked with them to draft legislation, hammering out the specifics in long negotiations with lobbyists from both sides.

He used this approach to add safeguards to the state death penalty system and to prevent racial profiling in traffic stops, two touchy issues that involved law enforcement. Representatives from both sides say Obama took their concerns seriously and made concessions when they presented a good argument.

While Obama wasn't known for attending cocktail parties or dining with lobbyists, he did socialize with them.

Obama played basketball almost daily when the legislature was in session in Springfield and participated in a weekly poker game. His opponents included other legislators as well as some lobbyists. The lobbyists say they never discussed legislation during the game, but they did feel that establishing a rapport on the court or at the card table helped them with Obama in the long run.

Even friendly lobbyists could expect sharp questioning about their legislation.

"When you walked into his office, you'd better have all the facts," said Michael Lieteau, a lobbyist who played both basketball and poker with Obama. Lieteau lobbies for AT&T, which gave Obama at least $5,250 through its PAC.

Obama helped pass two of the toughest ethics laws in Illinois history, and both of them attempted to reduce the influence of lobbyists.

A 1998 law barred lawmakers from accepting most gifts from lobbyists. It also outlawed accepting campaign donations on state property, meaning lobbyists could no longer hand legislators a check just as they were entering the chamber to vote.

"Prior to that bill, if you wanted to give a legislator a car, you could," said Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "That probably is the most significant curb we've put on in this state, and he was a key part of that."

Obama also co-sponsored a 2003 law that, among other things, barred lobbyists from serving on government boards and commissions and further tightened the restrictions on gifts to legislators.

After his election to the U.S. Senate, Obama was a leader in the successful effort to strengthen federal ethics laws. Lawmakers now have to disclose the names of lobbyists who raise money for them by "bundling" donations from many people. They also have to disclose special projects they try to add to the budget.

"Throughout his career, Barack Obama
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has fought to reduce the outsized influence lobbyists wield over the legislative process and to give a voice to underrepresented Americans," spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

He did not respond to questions about why Obama chose to accept lobbyists' donations in Springfield but rejects them now, except to say that Obama's ban is an imperfect solution to the problem of money in politics.

The ban is not absolute.

Obama's presidential campaign takes donations from state-level lobbyists and from the families and business partners of federal lobbyists. And Obama didn't adopt the ban until he ran for president. His Hopefund political committee accepted about $125,000 from PACs after he began serving in the U.S. Senate, and his Senate campaign committee also continued to accept PAC contributions until this year.

Canary doesn't see a contradiction between Obama's relationship with lobbyists in Springfield and his argument today that Washington lobbyists have too much clout.

One reason, she said, is that Illinois legislators have smaller staffs to research and write bills, so lobbyists must play a bigger part in explaining the issues. The real question is whether legislators give lobbyists too much authority, she said, and there's no indication of Obama doing that.

"I don't think it's bad to have those voices at the table, but it requires legislators to know what their own positions are and to do their homework," Canary said.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

49. Good read, Kinda points out the truth.

[Satyagrahi]

48. This is NOT what Obama said in his speech.

You heard wrong. :)

Here is what Obama actually said:

We have to choose between change and more of the same. We have to choose between looking backwards and looking forwards. We have to choose between our future and our past.

It’s a choice between going into this election with Republicans and independents already united against us or going against their nominee with a campaign that has united Americans of all parties, from all backgrounds, from all races, from all religions, around a common purpose.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s a choice between having a debate with the other party about who has the most experience in Washington or having one about who is most likely to change Washington, because that’s a debate that we can win.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s a choice between a candidate who’s taken more money from Washington lobbyists from either Republican in this race and a campaign that has not taken a dime of their money, because we have been funded by you. You have funded this campaign.

http://youdecide08.foxnews.com/2008/02/06/raw-data-text-of-barack-obamas-super-tuesday-speech/

Watch the speech here:
http://www.campaignnetwork.org/

Or here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/C74q

[inthebrain]

50. Who's the campaing that hasn't taken a dime of lobbyist money

it aint Obama.

Who is it?