NYT - Obama Ratchets Up Tone Against G.O.P. By PETER BAKER
PHILADELPHIA -- With his party facing losses in next month's election, President Obama pressed his argument Sunday that the opposition is trying to steal the election with secret special-interest money, possibly including money from foreign companies.
In a speech to a large rally here and in a new television advertisement, Mr. Obama and the Democrats escalated their efforts to present the Republicans as captive to moneyed interests. But Republicans and their allies fired back, dismissing the assertions as desperate last-minute allegations with no evidence to back them up.
"You can't let it happen," Mr. Obama told thousands of supporters gathered at a school park in a predominantly African-American, working-class neighborhood in northern Philadelphia. "Don't let them hijack your agenda. The American people deserve to know who's trying to sway their elections, and you can't stand by and let the special interests drown out the voices of the American people."
Mr. Obama has increasingly turned to the issue of campaign finance to motivate his supporters as the elections grow nearer and the polls remain bad for Democrats. With his party outmatched in advertising sponsored by groups that do not have to disclose their donors under a Supreme Court decision issued earlier this year, Mr. Obama has suggested that the sponsors of campaign advertising have sinister motivations.
"You don't know," he said here. "It could be the oil industry, it could be the insurance industry, it could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don't know because they don't have to disclose. Now that's not just a threat to Democrats, that's a threat to our democracy."
Gee, this guy sounds like some crazy loon birther or something? I doubt it.
He's just a run of the mill lying bastard afraid to lose power, and ironically he is giving STRENGTH to the forces of Darrel (I'll investigate how often you scratch your lying ass) Issa
Oh and BTW,
January 12, 2001
Indonesian Set To Make Plea In Donations
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11-- James T. Riady, the Indonesian billionaire, agreed today to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating campaign finance abuses, and he promised to pay $8.6 million in criminal fines for his role in funneling money to President Clinton and other candidates.
Under a plea agreement announced by the Justice Department, Mr. Riady agreed to plead guilty to a felony, conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the work of the Federal Election Commission ''through deceitful and dishonest means.''
The Justice Department said Mr. Riady pledged $1 million to Mr. Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.
In the plea agreement, filed in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles, Mr. Riady said he would cooperate with the government's continuing investigation of political fund-raising abuses.
At the same time, a California bank owned by the Riady family conglomerate agreed to plead guilty to 86 misdemeanors arising from campaign contributions made from 1988 through 1994. The government said the contributions were illegal because the money came from foreign sources.
Most of the money went to Democrats. A few Republicans also received contributions.
Federal prosecutors said the $8.6 million fine was the largest ever imposed in a campaign finance case. Technically, the fine was imposed on Lippo Bank California, a unit of the Lippo Group based in Indonesia, and Mr. Riady agreed to pay it.
Mr. Riady, an executive director of the Lippo Group, owned 98 percent of the bank's stock in the late 1980's. He acknowledged today that he had reimbursed campaign donors with foreign corporate money.
1 comment:
Remember the untraceable donations to Obama's campaign?
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