WI GOP throw ‘speed dating’ party for lobbyists

Capital Times: Is it possible U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan’s long-time description of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as a “dating service” that matches Republican legislators and corporate interests has given someone an idea?

The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee recently sent out invitations to a “speed networking PAC reception.”

For $6,000, one earns the title of a “gold sponsor” and gains admission to the event for 10 individuals. Silver sponsors give $3,000 to admit five, bronze sponsors give $1,000 for a simple plus-one and those attending solo give $500.

The invitation does not detail how the event works, but one lobbyist who plans to attend described it as a “pretty fun event … something different than the usual cocktail reception.”

"You basically just talk to lobbyists and then they ring the bell and then they move," said Rep. Travis Tranel. What fun!

Of course, when the sort of money we’re talking about here changes hands, you can’t really call it “dating.” Still, congrats to Wisconsin Republicans for streamlining everything. When you think about it, the pimp is just a pointless middleman anyway.

Griper Blade: John McCain's Plan to Come Up With a Plan

On September 17, 2007, Barack Obama went to Wall Street and said that our capital markets could not function without the confidence and trust of the public. Nearly one year later, a wave of economic crises has sapped the public's trust and led us into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The turmoil in our financial markets threatens our economy's ability to create good-paying jobs, help working Americans pay their bills and mortgage payments, and achieve the American Dream. Barack Obama believes that America's workers and our free market system have always been the engine of America's economic progress. Yet that progress has come only because we have made choices to invest in our people and guide the market's invisible hand with rules of the road that help both Main Street and Wall Street. Over the past several years, we have abandoned these rules in favor of a governing philosophy intent on shredding consumer protections, loosening oversight and regulation, and encouraging outsized bonuses to CEOs while ignoring middle-class Americans. President Bush and John McCain share this reflexive anti-regulatory approach and have been asleep at the switch as our economy has spiraled downward.
-First paragraph of Barack Obama's response to the market meltdown, "Restoring Confidence In Our Markets And Changing Our Economic Course" [PDF].

We’re going to need a 9/11 Commission to find out what happened and what needs to be fixed.
-John McCain's response on ABC's Good Morning America

A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll asked respondents, "Regardless of who you may support, who do you trust more to handle an unexpected major crisis: Obama or McCain?" 37% thought Barack Obama would do a better job, compared with 54% who thought John McCain would do better. Judging from the reactions above, it's hard to imagine how these respondents could've been more wrong.

While Obama reacts to the crisis with a detailed plan to deal with it, McCain proposes we study the problem with a blue ribbon panel who -- you assume -- would come up with a detailed plan to deal with it. The 9/11 commission was created in 2002. Its findings came out in 2004. I don't know about you, but I don't think we should let the market burn for two years before we have some idea how to put out the fire. We kind of have to deal with this now, not two years from now. In this crisis, at this time, John McCain is pretty useless.

Of course, I don't think this is what people had in mind when asked about an "unexpected major crisis." They probably thought of natural disasters or some sort of attack, but I guess that's the nature of the unexpected -- what you imagine it to be is wrong. Since it's unexpected, you can't prepare for it. And, since it's unexpected, you can't guess the reaction to it with any accuracy. The only way to find out which candidate would flinch is to take a swing...

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McCain Caught in Hypocrisy-Fest

clipped from yglesias.thinkprogress.org As Andrew Golis says, this is why Rachel Maddow matters. As of last week, had a liberal journalist like Ari Berman broken a news story like this it would have been published on The Nation, picked up in some blogs, and then it would have died. Now, it’s on television: Long story short, John McCain who hates lobbyists and celebrities decided to spend his seventieth birthday partying on a yacht off the shore of Montenegro with an Italian con man and his movie star girlfriend, a meeting organized by a lobbyist who also happens to be McCain’s campaign manager.

I'm so glad Rachel's on the TV machine now. I'm sure I'm missing a hypocrisy here, but we've got:

1. McCain hanging with the hated lobbyist.
   
2. McCain hanging with the hated celebrity.
   
3. McCain being all elitist on a yacht in Montenegro.
   

I'll bet they served arugula and lattes.

Griper Blade: Vote McCain, Re-Elect Lobbyists

Sometimes I think I need to work on my headlines. I pretty much wait until I've finished the post, then wonder what the hell I'm going to call it. I went through and tagged some posts and articles last night about an op-ed written by the McCain-Palin team (or, as it's being marketed by that side, Palin-McCain) and signed off on by the candidates. Their title -- or maybe it's the headline the Wall Street Journal editorial staff gave it -- is "We'll Protect Taxpayers From More Bailouts." You kind of get the feeling that someone suggested an exclamation point, but that was voted down as being too much.

Think Progress has a better headline. In fact, it's so dead on that you almost don't have to read the post. "McCain Op-Ed: Lobbyists Like My Campaign Manager Are 'Primary Contributors' To Fannie-Freddie Crisis." I guess "I'll protect you from me" was still a little too vague.

Palin's name is on the op-ed mostly because she's become a crutch for McCain. She's not especially knowledgeable when it comes to the housing crisis. Speaking of headlines, Sam Stein explains the problem in a piece titled "Palin Makes Her First Gaffe":

Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, which came before the government had spent funds bailing the two entities out, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

In this case, I've got the better headline, "Sarah Palin Doesn't Know Her Fannie Mae From A Hole In The Ground."...

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Griper Blade: Who Vetted Palin?

Yesterday, Republicans put politics aside and decided to push back their convention in response to Hurricane Gustav. People in stupid hats, wearing buttons with goofy sayings, and whooping it up would be unseemly. Yesterday, as Gustav hit land near New Orleans, was not the time for politics. We can imagine solemn GOPers burning candles and praying, putting America first with all their little hearts.

Except they weren't.

Even as Republican John McCain sharply scaled back his party's national convention here out of concern over Hurricane Gustav, the parties and receptions for delegates and donors continued.

On Sunday night, for instance, delegates from Southern states were entertained by rock musician Sammy Hagar at a corporate-sponsored party at a Minneapolis nightclub. Scheduled for Wednesday: a Charlie Daniels Band concert to raise money for an entertainment industry advocacy group.

Many also attended a lobbyist group's -- the American Trucking Associations' -- shindig featuring Hookers and Blow. That's not an extra fun smorgasborg, that's the name of a local band. It's an unfortunate name, given recent GOP scandals, but there ya go.

So the party, although unofficial, went on. And that should surprise no one. The decision to put politics aside was in itself a political decision. Party conventions went on during a lot more disastrous crises. In fact, this is the first time in American history that outside events have changed the schedule of a major party's convention.

But the Ghost of Republican Disasters Past was threatening to haunt the Xcel Energy Center. In the end, any decision regarding a political event must logically be a political decision. In their defense, the Republicans couldn't actually put politics aside -- that would be impossible...

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Big Oil Spends Big Lobbying $

clipped from money.cnn.com As angry voters spark a barrage of energy bills in Congress, the oil industry is spending record amounts of money protecting its interests. In what may be surprising to some, the most recent figures from the Center for Responsive Politics show that the oil industry gives a relatively small sum to individual political campaigns - it's 16th on a list of top 50 industries. But when it comes to lobbying - and spending money that goes toward researching, writing and convincing lawmakers to vote its way - the industry ranks fifth. If the spending continues at the current pace, the industry is set to break last year's $83 million record. "In the minds of most people, you rarely spend money to get nothing done," said Massie Riesch, communications director for CRP. "But in government, people often spend vast sums of money to make sure nothing happens at all."

In related news, this Congress has passed more BS resolutions than actual laws. Mission accomplished.