special interests

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Wall Street's Fear: Senators Who Know Things
Wall Street's Fear: Senators Who Know Things
OPINION

Wall Street's Fear: Senators Who Know Things

Bankers want no part of 'expert' Elizabeth Warren, Dave Sirota writes

(Newser) - Get Wall Street executives drunk enough, and David Sirota of Salon is pretty sure they'll confess that they like their legislators to be incurious and ill-informed. How does he know? Because one former Lehman Brothers trader recently admitted as much in a recent Businessweek piece on the Massachusetts Senate...

Special Interests Gave 'Super Committee' Members $3M

Donors have a stake in spending cuts

(Newser) - The 12 members of the new budget super committee have received more than $3 million over the past five years from special interests directly affected by potential cuts, an AP review finds. The money came from groups linked to defense contractors, labor unions, and health care providers, and buffered the...

Time to Stem Tide of Special Interest Campaign Cash
Time to Stem Tide of Special Interest Campaign Cash
alan simpson

Time to Stem Tide of Special Interest Campaign Cash

Special interest groups 'distort elections': Alan Simpson

(Newser) - In 2010, special interest groups and lobbyists in Washington alone gave nearly $300 million to political candidates—"more than the donations of 32 states combined," notes Alan Simpson, writing for Politico . And 2012 is sure to be worse, unless we do something about it—now. Special interest money...

Cuomo Raked in Millions From Special Interests

He did vow to 'take them on' during campaign

(Newser) - When Andrew Cuomo vowed to "take on" special interests in his race to be New York governor, what he didn't say is that he was taking them on as campaign partners. Records show Cuomo accepted millions from health care providers, real estate firms, lawyers, bankers, contractors, lobbyists and PepsiCo...

Billionaire Jeff Greene to Run for Senate

So what if Mike Tyson was his best man, and Heidi Fleiss his galpal

(Newser) - Billionaire investor Jeff Greene launched what promises to be a rather colorful campaign for Florida's Democratic Senate nomination today, depicting himself as an outsider who isn't beholden to anyone. “I won’t take a penny of special interest money in this campaign or after I am elected—never!”...

America Is Governable— Just Not by This Man

 America Is 
 Governable— 
 Just Not by 
 This Man  
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

America Is Governable— Just Not by This Man

Talk of systemic problems is whining because Obama failed: Krauthammer

(Newser) - There’s been a lot of crowing from liberals that the US is “ungovernable” because President Obama has not been able to enact key parts of his domestic agenda. Charles Krauthammer has heard the “usual litany of systemic explanations" before—this moment in history smacks of the Carter...

Health Reform Hit Partisan 'Buzz Saw': Obama

President says he won't quit trying 'just because it's hard'

(Newser) - President Obama says his health care overhaul has "run into a bit of a buzz saw" and acknowledges the process is looking ugly. Nonetheless he says he'll keep working to finish sweeping legislation. In comments prepared for a town hall meeting in Ohio today, Obama said, "I am...

Special Interests Pouring Cash Into Mass. Race

With health care on the line, spending could top $3M in final days

(Newser) - Attack ads are flying in the final week of the Massachusetts Senate race, many of them coming from outside special interest groups. The American Future Fund and US Chamber of Commerce have both spent sizable amounts on ads attacking Democrat Martha Coakley, while Americans for Responsible Health Care recently began...

Lobbyists See Advisory Roles Clipped by New Obama Rule

Feds aim to cut special-interest access; K Streeters demur

(Newser) - An Obama administration rule taking effect over the next few months will take potentially thousands of those oh-so-evil Washington lobbyists off panels advising federal officials on everything from consumer protection to environmental policy. The panels’ web is so tangled, the Post reports, that the feds aren’t even sure how...

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
sausage and politics

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign

Meeting raises questions about ties to big business

(Newser) - Aides to President Obama and Max Baucus met with a variety of lobbyists for corporate health care companies on April 15, to help form two industry coalitions and launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Politico has learned. Though both sides insist no quid pro quo was laid out, some participants say...

Health Industry Rains Cash on Blue Dog Dems

(Newser) - The Blue Dogs—the 52 fiscally conservative Democrats who have been fighting to kill health care reform proposals the industry doesn’t like—receive far more money from that industry than their non-coalition-member counterparts, the Washington Post reports. The reform push has been a boon for the lawmakers' ledgers; the...

Our Decrepit Democracy Can't Fix Health Care: Klein

(Newser) - Powerful special interests are killing health-care reform, which is par for the course in Congress, writes Joe Klein of Time. “We’ve gotten rusty at legislating,” says one Tennessee Democrat. That’s overly kind, Klein retorts. The only bills that pass these days are essentials like budgets and...

Dem Groups Loyal to Obama Despite Snubs

Prez won't kiss up to activists, but pushes liberal agenda

(Newser) - President Obama is publicly ignoring and even criticizing the liberal interest groups feverishly courted by past presidents. He has chastised the teachers’ union, skipped the State of the Black Union (again), and eschewed fanfare when restoring funding to groups that promote abortion. But activists remain loyal anyway, Politico reports, because...

The Plouffe Plan That Terrifies Washington

Senior adviser plans to turn Obama's campaign machine into Obama's governing machine

(Newser) - The shy middleman who spearheaded Barack Obama's campaign now plans to morph it into a powerful netroots organization, Lisa Taddeo writes in Esquire. Drawing on his unprecedented 13-million-name contact list, David Plouffe says he will soon unveil Organizing for America, a group aimed at drumming up support for policy initiatives....

Wall Street Dominates List of Inaugural Donors

Big banks (yeah, those big banks) have bundled huge donations for the bash

(Newser) - Private donations to defray the cost of Barack Obama's inauguration festivities total $27.3 million—and large donors, including Wall Street executives flush with bailout cash, chipped in $24.8 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. That runs counter to the vow to remain independent of special interests that led...

Daschle Will Play Hardball on Health Reform

Incoming HHS Secretary will avoid Hillary's pitfalls

(Newser) - Tom Daschle, Barack Obama's incoming Director of Health and Human Services, has an aggressive strategy for reforming health care, and no intentions of seeing it fizzle the way the Clintons' efforts did in 1993, reports the Los Angeles Times. The key will be reeling in major health-care interest groups, along...

NRA Targets Obama, but Does Anyone Care?

Gun control issue largely off the table, experts say

(Newser) - The NRA is aiming both barrels at Barack Obama, but the gun rights group is no longer a formidable GOP weapon, the LA Times reports. Congress hasn’t passed gun control laws in 14 years, and Democrats are terrified to touch the issue, scarred from old campaigns. In other words,...

Party Conventions: the Last Loophole for Big Donors

Issue may test McCain and Obama on their zeal to stop influence of big money

(Newser) - Big donors are pumping big money into both party's conventions, one of the last remaining loopholes in the rules governing so-called soft money contributions, the New York Times reports. And while it's all perfectly legal, the issue may test the conviction of both Barack Obama and John McCain on their...

'Indie' Bloomberg Leans Left
'Indie' Bloomberg Leans Left
OPINION

'Indie' Bloomberg Leans Left

NYC mayor's policies place him squarely in the Democratic corner

(Newser) - Michael Bloomberg may brand himself an independent, but his liberal stances align him with the Democrats, reports the New York Times. Bloomberg supports gay marriage, abortion rights, and stricter gun control laws, levies taxes on the rich and is against deporting illegal immigrants. But supporters say his idea for nonpartisan...

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