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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Making Money Cash

Marc Theissen recently asked some very important questions about where the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is getting the mountains of cash that it spends on Democrat political campaigns. He finds that it is coming from foreign sources, but the SEIU is refusing to yield to requests for transparency.

If the SEIU is getting the millions of dollars it is spending on Democrats from foreign sources, this should put a major dent in the alarmist claims that Obama has been making about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supposedly getting its money from outside the country — a charge that was resoundingly refuted. After all, if one of Obama’s biggest left-wing campaign supporters is suffused with foreign cash, why should it be such a big deal if anyone else is?

Sadly, the Old Media will never play up this aspect of Obama’s hypocrisy, but that is another subject.

In any case, Theissen asked the SEIU where its political cash was coming from because federal financial reporting records seemed to prove that it could not have been coming solely from the dues of American union members. Since the SEIU has thousands of members in foreign nations, Theissen wondered how that factored in.

Initially the SEIU lied to him and claimed that “most” of its political cash came from domestic dues payers. But Theissen persisted with his doubts. It wasn’t long before the SEIU admitted that they were lying previously.

“Most” of the money the SEIU uses for “political purposes” does not come from [the union's Committee on Political Education] COPE (to which you must be a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident to contribute). “Most” of the SEIU’s political spending, he now admits, comes from other accounts.

Theissen still has more questions, ones that the SEIU is still stonewalling.

And who funds those other accounts? “Our own members,” Youngdahl writes. Well, the SEIU’s members include foreign workers and — as an SEIU executive boasts in this video — illegal immigrants. Youngdahl has twice failed to answer my question, so I will ask it a third time: Do the SEIU’s foreign workers and illegal immigrant members (who are by definition foreign nationals) contribute any money to the accounts that the union uses for “political purposes”?

It seems pretty clear that the SEIU is using the dues from illegal workers in the U.S. and foreign workers for its domestic political operations and that those funds are directed solely toward Obama and his Democrats.

Hypocrites extraordinaire.

In a lengthy interview with The Daily Beast this week, Wagner said she didn't want to "cast aspersions" on Steele's chairmanship, but still managed to make subtle and not-so-subtle digs at his bumpy tenure.

"There needs to be accountability," she said. "The chairman needs to be full-time," she added, noting the needs for "checks and balances and controls." Beyond that, what the RNC needs, is "strong management and leadership from the very top."

From the beginning, Steele has been a public-relations headache for the Republican Party, picking a fight with Rush Limbaugh, offering "slum love" to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and describing civil unions as "crazy"—all in the first 30 days after taking office.

But whereas Steele is the "off-the-hook" kind guy, who said he wanted to polish the GOP's image with everyone "including one-armed midgets," Wagner is less showy—even her most high-level official appointment spoke restraint. (She served for three-and-a-half years as ambassador to Luxemborg, appointed by George W. Bush.)

As chairwoman of the Missouri Republican Party, she is credited with turning the state legislature from blue to red, winning statewide races and crucial votes to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Coming off those victories, she became the RNC co-chairwoman before Bush appointed her to the Luxembourg diplomatic post. Coming back, though, she worried that "perhaps socialism had followed me across the pond," she said, and so she decided that she "needed to reengage," successfully chairing Roy Blunt's Senate campaign.

Ann Wagner of the Republican National Committee pumps up the crowd on day one of the Republican National Convention in New York on Aug. 30, 2004. (Photo: Bill Greenblatt, UPI / Newscom)

The night before Wagner announced her desire to run for the chairmanship, she called Steele, someone she described as "a friend," telling him her intentions. The conversation was "cordial," she said, adding that she intends to focus on bringing back GOP donors who left the fold during the last cycle.

“With independent expenditures, there’s no coordination so you don’t know if the organization or the group will be there for you.” With outside groups, “you are flying blind a little bit.”

"It's not just restoring a certain level of credibility in being good stewards of our donors' investments," she said, "but frankly just going out and making the ask."

In many ways, Steele's biggest problems have been related to money. There was, of course, notoriously, the almost $2,000 that RNC staffers blew at a "bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex." (The RNC denied that Steele himself visited the Hollywood club.) More seriously, Democrats have been more effective in raising money, and last month, former RNC political director Gentry Collins wrote a scathing letter, saying Steele had maxed out on the $15 million credit line approved by the committe. And some have criticized Steele for being upstaged financially by GOP operatives such as Karl Rove, who pulled in much-needed cash for the Republican Party during last month's midterm elections. (An RNC spokesperson declined an interview with Steele.)

Wagner, for her part, clearly doesn't want to be beholden to Rove.

"The key is to make sure that, in a presidential year, we are not so dependent upon so many outside groups to assist in this," she said. "With independent expenditures, there's no coordination so you don't know if the organization or the group will be there for you." She added, with outside groups, "you are flying blind a little bit."

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Knight Science Journalism Tracker » Blog Archive » News from the ...

Wikileaks is top news right now. And not only for political journalists. There is a science journalism perspective, too, proves the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Jürgen Kaube). “Every social relationship depends on some, perhaps a lot ...

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Monday, December 6, 2010

1. Brooklyn Museum

2. Sesame Street Workshop

3. WildlifeDirect

4. Kids Are Heroes

5. Darius Goes West

What’s Your Take?

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

For more Social Good coverage:

1. Brooklyn Museum

2. Sesame Street Workshop

3. WildlifeDirect

4. Kids Are Heroes

5. Darius Goes West

What’s Your Take?

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

For more Social Good coverage:

1. Brooklyn Museum

2. Sesame Street Workshop

3. WildlifeDirect

4. Kids Are Heroes

5. Darius Goes West

What’s Your Take?

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

For more Social Good coverage: