Corporate cash does funny things to people. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) got into office by pledging to fight "special interests," but just a decade or so later, he's running one of the biggest special interest shows in Washington. It's easy to see the appeal. As the fancy funding backing the Tea Party demonstrates, big money buys big things—from elections to populist outrage.
In a piece for Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard details some of DeMint's serious campaign finance flip-floppery. During his first bid for Congress in 1998, DeMint denounced the Political Action Committee (PAC) mechanism as a tool deployed by "special interests" that "corrupts" the electoral process. But today, DeMint is the single most important figure and fundraiser for Senate Tea Party races. He has endorsed and pledged millions of dollars to support fringe right-wingers Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell (Delaware) and Rand Paul (Kentucky). DeMint has funneled this money through his own Political Action Committee (PAC) known as the Senate Conservatives Fund. DeMint even pledged to "fight for reforms that allow only individual contributions to campaigns."
But as I note in a blog for Campaign for America's Future, DeMint isn't the only power player pouring money into the Tea Party. DeMint's 12 Tea Party Senate candidates have reaped over $4.6 million from Wall Street for this election—excluding Wall Street cash that has been funneled through DeMint's PAC. So much for all that grassroots rage against bailed-out elites.
The Tea Party bubble
And Wall Street's new Tea Party investment might just be the next big economic bubble. Joshua Holland at AlterNet surveys the campaign contributions of America's bailout barons. The 23 firms that received at least $1 billion in bailout money from taxpayers spent $1.4 million on campaign contributions—in September alone.
And these are just campaign contributions, which are essentially unaffected by the high court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The real corporate money is running through front-groups that run their own ads—not the official campaigns operated by political candidates. And these front-groups don't have to disclose where their money comes from.
Writing for Campus Progress, Simeon Tally highlights a frightening trend toward secrecy in U.S. elections, fueled by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Back in 2004, 98 percent of outside groups disclosed who their donors were. Today, that number is just 32 percent. We're not just fighting corporate money bombs, we're fighting secret corporate money bombs.
Who really has the advantage?
While there's been much debate over who really comes out on top thanks to the post-Citizens United rules, Jesse Zwick notes for The Washington Independent, these stories are only talking about direct campaign contributions. Some might argue that Democrats have an advantage in disclosed funding, but Republicans have a six-to-one advantage money flowing through outside groups.
But wait, there's more!
- Check out Matthew Reichbach and Trip Jennings' reporting for The New Mexico Independent on the fact that all of this spending from outside groups usually means money from outside the states where candidates are running. Outside expenditures have swelled to $5 million in two New Mexico House races—both in relatively cheap media markets.
- AlterNet has been running loads of stories on crooked corporate cash, covering everything from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's dirty dealings with AIG to the political spending habits of bailed-out banks. Joshua Holland rounds up eight of the articles here for AlterNet.
- Comic artist Matt Bors makes light of America's new "growth industries" at Campus Progress, pointing to makers of anonymous political attack ads.
Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You
Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
PRAISE FOR POLITICAL WIRE
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, NBC News political director
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
"If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it."
-- Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant
"Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick."
-- Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
"Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere."
-- Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
"I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!"
-- Dick Morris, political consultant
"I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading."
-- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Corporate cash does funny things to people. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) got into office by pledging to fight "special interests," but just a decade or so later, he's running one of the biggest special interest shows in Washington. It's easy to see the appeal. As the fancy funding backing the Tea Party demonstrates, big money buys big things—from elections to populist outrage.
In a piece for Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard details some of DeMint's serious campaign finance flip-floppery. During his first bid for Congress in 1998, DeMint denounced the Political Action Committee (PAC) mechanism as a tool deployed by "special interests" that "corrupts" the electoral process. But today, DeMint is the single most important figure and fundraiser for Senate Tea Party races. He has endorsed and pledged millions of dollars to support fringe right-wingers Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell (Delaware) and Rand Paul (Kentucky). DeMint has funneled this money through his own Political Action Committee (PAC) known as the Senate Conservatives Fund. DeMint even pledged to "fight for reforms that allow only individual contributions to campaigns."
But as I note in a blog for Campaign for America's Future, DeMint isn't the only power player pouring money into the Tea Party. DeMint's 12 Tea Party Senate candidates have reaped over $4.6 million from Wall Street for this election—excluding Wall Street cash that has been funneled through DeMint's PAC. So much for all that grassroots rage against bailed-out elites.
The Tea Party bubble
And Wall Street's new Tea Party investment might just be the next big economic bubble. Joshua Holland at AlterNet surveys the campaign contributions of America's bailout barons. The 23 firms that received at least $1 billion in bailout money from taxpayers spent $1.4 million on campaign contributions—in September alone.
And these are just campaign contributions, which are essentially unaffected by the high court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The real corporate money is running through front-groups that run their own ads—not the official campaigns operated by political candidates. And these front-groups don't have to disclose where their money comes from.
Writing for Campus Progress, Simeon Tally highlights a frightening trend toward secrecy in U.S. elections, fueled by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Back in 2004, 98 percent of outside groups disclosed who their donors were. Today, that number is just 32 percent. We're not just fighting corporate money bombs, we're fighting secret corporate money bombs.
Who really has the advantage?
While there's been much debate over who really comes out on top thanks to the post-Citizens United rules, Jesse Zwick notes for The Washington Independent, these stories are only talking about direct campaign contributions. Some might argue that Democrats have an advantage in disclosed funding, but Republicans have a six-to-one advantage money flowing through outside groups.
But wait, there's more!
- Check out Matthew Reichbach and Trip Jennings' reporting for The New Mexico Independent on the fact that all of this spending from outside groups usually means money from outside the states where candidates are running. Outside expenditures have swelled to $5 million in two New Mexico House races—both in relatively cheap media markets.
- AlterNet has been running loads of stories on crooked corporate cash, covering everything from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's dirty dealings with AIG to the political spending habits of bailed-out banks. Joshua Holland rounds up eight of the articles here for AlterNet.
- Comic artist Matt Bors makes light of America's new "growth industries" at Campus Progress, pointing to makers of anonymous political attack ads.
Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You
Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
PRAISE FOR POLITICAL WIRE
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, NBC News political director
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
"If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it."
-- Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant
"Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick."
-- Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
"Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere."
-- Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
"I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!"
-- Dick Morris, political consultant
"I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading."
-- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Corporate cash does funny things to people. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) got into office by pledging to fight "special interests," but just a decade or so later, he's running one of the biggest special interest shows in Washington. It's easy to see the appeal. As the fancy funding backing the Tea Party demonstrates, big money buys big things—from elections to populist outrage.
In a piece for Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard details some of DeMint's serious campaign finance flip-floppery. During his first bid for Congress in 1998, DeMint denounced the Political Action Committee (PAC) mechanism as a tool deployed by "special interests" that "corrupts" the electoral process. But today, DeMint is the single most important figure and fundraiser for Senate Tea Party races. He has endorsed and pledged millions of dollars to support fringe right-wingers Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell (Delaware) and Rand Paul (Kentucky). DeMint has funneled this money through his own Political Action Committee (PAC) known as the Senate Conservatives Fund. DeMint even pledged to "fight for reforms that allow only individual contributions to campaigns."
But as I note in a blog for Campaign for America's Future, DeMint isn't the only power player pouring money into the Tea Party. DeMint's 12 Tea Party Senate candidates have reaped over $4.6 million from Wall Street for this election—excluding Wall Street cash that has been funneled through DeMint's PAC. So much for all that grassroots rage against bailed-out elites.
The Tea Party bubble
And Wall Street's new Tea Party investment might just be the next big economic bubble. Joshua Holland at AlterNet surveys the campaign contributions of America's bailout barons. The 23 firms that received at least $1 billion in bailout money from taxpayers spent $1.4 million on campaign contributions—in September alone.
And these are just campaign contributions, which are essentially unaffected by the high court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The real corporate money is running through front-groups that run their own ads—not the official campaigns operated by political candidates. And these front-groups don't have to disclose where their money comes from.
Writing for Campus Progress, Simeon Tally highlights a frightening trend toward secrecy in U.S. elections, fueled by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Back in 2004, 98 percent of outside groups disclosed who their donors were. Today, that number is just 32 percent. We're not just fighting corporate money bombs, we're fighting secret corporate money bombs.
Who really has the advantage?
While there's been much debate over who really comes out on top thanks to the post-Citizens United rules, Jesse Zwick notes for The Washington Independent, these stories are only talking about direct campaign contributions. Some might argue that Democrats have an advantage in disclosed funding, but Republicans have a six-to-one advantage money flowing through outside groups.
But wait, there's more!
- Check out Matthew Reichbach and Trip Jennings' reporting for The New Mexico Independent on the fact that all of this spending from outside groups usually means money from outside the states where candidates are running. Outside expenditures have swelled to $5 million in two New Mexico House races—both in relatively cheap media markets.
- AlterNet has been running loads of stories on crooked corporate cash, covering everything from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's dirty dealings with AIG to the political spending habits of bailed-out banks. Joshua Holland rounds up eight of the articles here for AlterNet.
- Comic artist Matt Bors makes light of America's new "growth industries" at Campus Progress, pointing to makers of anonymous political attack ads.
Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You
Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
PRAISE FOR POLITICAL WIRE
"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."
-- Chuck Todd, NBC News political director
"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."
-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report
"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”
-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report
"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"
-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia
"If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it."
-- Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant
"Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick."
-- Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post
"Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere."
-- Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit
"I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!"
-- Dick Morris, political consultant
"I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading."
-- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
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eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
Fox <b>News</b> Turns Obama's Kid Book Into Anti-American War Epic
When news aggregation goes wrong: Fox News republished a USA Today article called "Obama Shares Dreams for His Kids in Book About 13 Americans." Fox News' headline? "Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed US General."
Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber
But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...
Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due
News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...
eric seiger
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