Don't tell the lefty groups but private equity funds Dems
By Soren Dayton Posted in 2008 | Lisa Lerer | Media Bias | Michael J. de la Merced | MoveOn.org | private equity | SEIU — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Yesterday, the New York Times' Michael J. de la Merced and the Politico's Lisa Lerer covered SEIU and MoveOn going after private equity firm KKR. We have written about this before. This time the reporters try to add in John McCain to the mix by arguing that Henry Kravis (the 2nd K in KKR) is raising money for McCain. So far a total of $29k.
| Candidate | Amount |
| Dodd | $20,700 |
| Obama | $9,540 |
| Clinton | $4,750 |
But somehow the reporters swallowed the story and didn't notice what kind of money is flowing to Obama, Democratic candidates, and Democratic Party from KKR. The Presidential numbers are in the table to my right. This is reminiscent of Newsweek's recent intellectual blunder when they failed to report that the CEO of a bank was bundling for Obama. Just lazy I guess.
If only it stopped there. Read on.
Even Rolling Stone, that bastion of quality reporting, gets the joke that the Politico and the esteemed Grey Lady miss. It is extortion:
What Reid also failed to mention is that the real difference between hedge-fund billionaires and others "so situated" is that they are the ones underwriting efforts by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee run by Schumer. According to campaign-finance records, seven of the country's 10 richest hedge-fund managers contributed an average of $24,400 to the DSCC last year. "Schumer didn't want to turn the spigot off," says Bob McIntyre, director of the nonpartisan Citizens for Tax Justice. All told, the hedge-fund and private-equity sectors have showered the Democrats with more than $14 million this year — double what they have given Republicans.
This is more political extortion at the hands of the SEIU and MoveOn. Yet again, reporters are hitting print on the press releases that they are getting sent from campaigns and the DNC.
This, from the WSJ after KKR hired Ken Mehlman:
Mehlman has an important Democratic relationship: that with his law school classmate, Barack Obama, who is the Democratic frontrunner. (In fact, Republican marionette-master Karl Rove met Obama through Mehlman, as he mentioned in an interview in this month’s GQ Magazine).
Really, anybody who knows anything about Manhattan knows that there are a lot of wealthy investment bankers, lawyers, hedge fund managers, etc. who are either Democrats or willing to donate to Democrats to cover their bases.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
There are a lot of wealthy i-bankers, hedgies and lawyers in New York who are happy to donate to Democrats because they know that Democrats will advance their interests when they get into office.
It's often easy to assume that businesspeople believe in small government, low taxes, and light regulation. It ain't necessarily so.
This is certainly suspicious but where is the link ?
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777