Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner has uncovered still yet another reason why the Democrats are hiding from President Barack Obama (D), are avoiding him, are running away from him, are denying they're in the same party.
Obama is taking bi partisanship to a different realm--he's making his opposition look good, his friends, bad. For instance, during last week's class warfare speech in Ohio, he continually condemned Ohio's representative and Minority House Leader John Boehner (R) as--eek!--a top recipient of lobbyists' largess, totally beholden to them. The ever obedient New York Times reinforced this feeling, implying accepting lobbyists' cash is somehow unethical because it means one is "tightly bound to lobbyists" voting exactly as they want to the detriment of the constituents.
Well, whoops! Guess who has grabbed, er has been the beneficiary, of nearly twice the amount of lobbyists' money as Boehner? Why none other than Obama's pal and Boehner's opposite, the first female House Majority Leader, Rep Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA), the very one who pledged to sweep the place clean and "run the most ethical and open Congress in history."
In addition to Pelosi other Democrats also did quite well from lobbyists. So well that
# At least 18 House Democrats have raised more lobbyist cash this election than Boehner has.
# Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have pocketed more lobbyist cash in the past 18 months than Boehner has raised in the past 6 elections, combined?
(snip) From 1999 until today, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Boehner has raised $299,490 from lobbyists.
For comparison, Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln, and Chuck Schumer have each raised more money from lobbyists in this cycle alone.
This election cycle, Boehner is not even in the top 20 recipients of lobbyist cash. He's raised less than $40,000 from lobbyists this cycle - compared to Nancy Pelosi's $71,000 from lobbyists.
Are these candidates, and other Democrats, "tightly bound to lobbyists," about to ban lobbyist cash? Will Obama criticize them for their involvement with lobbyists? Probably not--the Democratic candidates would scream in agony. Accepting lobbying money is perfectly legal within certain laws; most candidates do so. They need the cash for re election.
So remember the lesson most of us learned in kindergarten, before criticizing someone else make sure you're perfect. And even Obama isn't perfect. Really.
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