Democrat Corruptocrats, The Saga Continues
Dodd & Jesse Jackson Jr. have both been involved in some shady dealings over the past couple of years, if not earlier, but as recently as this week.
Senator Dodd, as we all know, has some major corruption and reputation issues to work through, especially after his Countrywide ties and his own dealings with AIG (with his wife and campaign contributions/bonus language in the stimulus), as well as the complete meltdown of the financial industry under his watch and Barney Frank’s!
However, there was a recent investigation into some old lobbying ties of Senator Dodd’s, and of all places this investigative reporting took place on the Huffington Post!
there’s a lobbying group called the Online Lenders Alliance. Fair enough. They’re throwing a conference this week. So far, so good. There’s a bunch of people from Congress involved or speaking, on both sides of the aisle. Fine*. Senator Dodd was one of the scheduled Senators for the event, except when asked about it first his staff, then Dodd himself flatly denied that he was there on OLA’s behalf at all; it was an independent fundraising dinner. Nothing unusu… wait, what?
Inside the restaurant, Dodd staffers said the dinner, which was not open to press, was not even sponsored by the Online Lenders Alliance.
The dinner “is not an OLA event,” OLA spokeswoman Lisa McGreevy said in a subsequent phone interview. But the OLA agenda lists a Dodd dinner — was there a mixup?
“I don’t think there was any mixup,” she said. “There is a fundraiser tonight for Senator Dodd.”
McGreevy added: “There may be some OLA people there.”
Needless to say, the Huffington Post has a contradictory screenshot, presumably from the OLA website. They also helpfully note that Dodd takes the cash from payday loan people, although I don’t know how fair it is to point that out, particularly since 44 grand isn’t that much in the scheme of things. Anyway, it looks like Dodd’s lying to somebody: he’s either using what should have been a perfectly-normal lobbying event to quietly and deniably raise some cash, or he doesn’t want the Left to think that he’s playing both sides of the fence when it comes to credit card ‘reform.’
Poor milk dodd – he continues to speak out of both sides of his mouth and wonders why he is so low in the polls against Simmons.
Jesse Jackson Jr. doesn’t think twice when it comes to funnelling money to his wife due to loopholes in laws that allow her to act as a consultant for political action committees. This is typical of the dynasties set up in Chicago, where people are still poor, crime is still high, and children are being killed on the street at alarming rates… One would think that the reason this continues to occur is due to the political thugacracy and the dynasties that could care less about their constituents. They care more about power and control and remaining atop the “hill.” Ask Obama!
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
Jackson’s political committee also gave at least $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions to Sandra Jackson’s campaign fund, which bankrolled her races for a city council seat that pays more than $100,000 per year and an unpaid position on the Cook County Democratic Committee.
Sandra Jackson, known as Sandi, received the $95,000 for political consulting after pledging during her campaign to give “my full attention” to the alderman’s post.
Jesse Jackson got a Federal Election Commission advisory opinion in 2001 saying his campaign could pay Sandi Jackson for consulting work without violating a ban on personal use of political donations. Even so, the Chicago Democrat’s fundraising is so entangled with his family’s interests that he’s pushing the limits of propriety, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit ethics watchdog group.
“Much of this may be legal, but let’s refer back to an old quote: the scandal in Washington often is what’s legal,” said Sloan, whose group in 2007 reported on relatives who profit from their ties to members of Congress. “Mr. Jackson is availing himself of the full range of loopholes by which he can transfer money to his family.”
