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Tag: Politics

  • Clinton campaign scrubs name of Fox News military analyst from website Muckety.com

    The Clinton campaign has deleted the name of a controversial military analyst from a press release published months ago on the Clinton web site.

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    Clinton announced at a Veteran’s Day event in 2007 that former Maj. Gen. Robert J. Scales Jr was among a group of high-ranking military brass joining the campaign’s Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary Committee.

    Scales may be a familiar face to those following the details of the war in Iraq. He has been on television and radio frequently, acting as a paid military analyst for Fox News and National Public Radio.

    Last month David Barstow of the New York Times provided a detailed account of how the Pentagon used Scales and other retired military officers as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” to spin the Bush administration’s views on Iraq when they acted as military analysts for the media.

    Members of the group were invited to private meetings with senior Pentagon officials where they were briefed on administration talking points. They were also taken on paid junkets to Iraq, to see the war firsthand and talk with officers in the field.

    The Times investigation revealed that Scales and some of the other retired officers were in positions to profit from their Pentagon connections by consulting with and/or lobbying for defense contractors.

    Scales is the CEO of Colgen, a company which bills itself as “America’s premier landpower advocate – new, lean, well-connected and able to meet the needs of any client or individual.”

    Clients listed on the company web site include such defense industry heavyweights as Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon. The CIA and NSA are also on its “growing list of satisfied clients.”

    Today, six months after the Veteran’s Day event, mention of Scales has been scrubbed from the press release on Clinton’s campaign web site – well, sort of.

    Although the English version of the press release does not list Scales’s name, Muckety found a Spanish version of the release on the Clinton web site that refers to Scales. A list of the advisory committee members in the English version instead contains a blank space where Scales’s name appears in the Spanish version (see images below).

    Redacting information from earlier publications could backfire by drawing attention to the issue, said Barbara O’Connor, professor of political communications at California State University in Sacramento.

    The campaign “appears to be trying to distance themselves from (Scales). The motive for the deletion is not clear without an addendum and it causes suspicion,” she said. “I would err on the side of being transparent. You took it out and didn’t tell us why and it makes us suspicious.”

    The Clinton campaign insists that it removed Scales’ name at his request last November because of his role as a cable network analyst. (See Editor’s note below.)


    Editor’s note: Our original lead paragraph for this post read, “The Clinton campaign, in an apparent effort to distance itself from a supporter who has received negative publicity of late, seems to have deleted his name from a press release published months ago on the Clinton web site.”

    We changed the sentence after receiving the following response from the Clinton campaign: “Because of his role as a cable network analyst, Maj Gen Scales asked in November to have his name removed from partisan press releases and the campaign complied at the time. Please correct your story to reflect this.”

    We’re still awaiting the campaign’s answers to our follow-up questions about why no mention of the redaction was made on the web site and why General Scales agreed to be on the campaign’s Veterans and Military Retirees for Hillary Committee if he was concerned about being viewed as a partisan.

    English version of press release (PDF)
    Spanish version of press release (PDF)

    [Muckety.com](https://createpositivechange.org/2008/05/09/clinton-campaign-scrubs-name-of-fox-news-military-analyst-from-website/2681

  • 4br penthous/duplex in luxury Obama blg, great location (Muckety)

    Emotions are running so high in this year’s presidential race that real estate agents may want to start promoting buildings not only for their park views and their square footage, but for their residents’ political leanings.

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    Muckety examined the most recent round of campaign finance reports, analyzing total donations by Manhattan residents who had given at least $1,000. We then totalled contributions by address to see which buildings gave the most to which candidate.

    Not surprisingly, most of the top addresses were clustered in a relatively small area around Central Park.

    The top money-getters in the top 20 buildings are shown on the map below – M for McCain, C for Clinton and O for Obama.


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    Not all the addresses are residential buildings. Some contributors – including Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone – used business locations. The two private equity managers, at 345 Park Avenue, are backing McCain.

    Leonard and Evelyn Lauder, reporting their contributions from the offices of Estee Lauder, at 767 Fifth Avenue, support Clinton.

    Among top residential buildings, the historic Beresford, at 7 West 81st Street, went for Obama. Clinton drew the majority of dollars donated by residents of the San Remo apartments, on Central Park West.

    ([Muckety](https://createpositivechange.org/2008/05/08/4br-penthousduplex-in-luxury-obama-blg-great-location/2671)

  • G. Gordon Liddy connection could plague John McCain

    Writing in the Chicago Tribune recently, columnist Steve Chapman suggested that Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, could have a friend problem.

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    In McCain’s case, the friend is G. Gordon Liddy, the conservative radio talk-show house and convicted mastermind of the Watergate break-in.

    Liddy, 77, contributed several thousand dollars to McCain’s senatorial campaigns, and this year he gave $1,000 to the presidential campaign.

    McCain has appeared on Liddy’s show. And in November he praised Liddy for his adherence “to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great,” Chapman reports.

    The McCain-Liddy connection would seem to be much stronger that the link between Sen. Barack Obama, McCain’s possible Democratic opponent for president, and William Ayers, the former member of the Weather Underground. The radical group formed in the late 1960s was involved in several bombings.

    Ayers contributed $200 to Obama when he was running for the state Senate in Illinois. And the two served on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago.

    Obama condemned the actions of the Weather Underground. But he also noted that he was “an 8-year-old child” when they took place.

    McCain criticized the Obama-Ayers connection when it became a campaign issue between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

    “I think not only a repudiation but an apology for even having anything to do with an unrepentant terrorist is due the American people,” McCain said. Chapman suggests that McCain should do a little repudiating and apologizing of his own for his relationship with Liddy.

    An Army veteran of the Korean War era, Liddy graduated from Fordham Law School and became an FBI special agent. Later he served as a prosecutor in New York’s Dutchess County.

    His effort to convict counterculture Dr. Timothy Leary on drugs charges then was unsuccessful. Years later, Leary and Liddy teamed up on the speakers circuit.

    Liddy joined the White House Staff during Richard Nixon’s first term in office and eventually became part of the White House Special Investigations Unit. The covert group of so-called plumbers tracked down leaks of information and spied on perceived opponents of the administration.

    Liddy and E. Howard Hunt Jr., a former CIA agent, put together the 1972 plan to break into and bug the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. Along with the five men caught on the scene, they were eventually convicted on charges of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping.

    Liddy refused to cooperate with prosecutors. He received a 20-year sentence that was commuted by President Jimmy Carter after more than four years of time served.

    He emerged from prison in September 1977 penniless and unrepentant and remained silent on his role in Watergate until the 1980 publication of his memoir, Will.

    In the book, he acknowledged that he once volunteered to kill columnist Jack Anderson, an offer that was not accepted. And he wrote that, after the Watergate break-in went bad, he volunteered to be assassinated.

    “‘If someone wants to shoot me, just tell me what corner to stand on and I’ll be there,’” Liddy remembered telling John Dean, the White House counsel.

    Liddy has written several more books and become wealthy through his talk show and his speaking appearances. He has also been in films and television shows, including a stint as a competitor on “Celebrity Fear Factor.”

    At times, his statements have gotten him in trouble, as when he said, “If the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms insists upon a firefight, give them a firefight. Just remember, they’re wearing flak jackets and you’re better off shooting for the head.”

  • Creator of the Infamous Willie Horton Ad Sets His Sights on Obama

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  • Candidates follow the money – to hedge fund billionaires (Muckety)

    Willie Sutton robbed banks because that’s where the money is.

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    Political candidates go hat in hand to hedge fund managers because that’s where even more money is.

    Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times reported yesterday that four of the top 10 earners among hedge fund managers last year have given to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

    Richest amongst these Obama givers is George Soros of Soros Fund Management, who earned $2.9 billion in 2007 to be ranked second on the list of top earners.

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the other Democratic contender and the winner of Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, has one of the top 10 on her side.

    James H. Simons, of Renaissance Technologies Corp., the number 3 earner at $2.8 billion has given her $4,600.

    Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican candidate, didn’t get any direct contributions from the top 10 earners on the list, which was compiled by Alpha magazine.

    Some of the top 10 moneymen, including John A. Paulson of Paulson & Company, number 1 on the list at $3.7 billion, gave to other Republican candidates. (Paulson went with former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.)

    And some of the hedge funders either didn’t give or gave to committees, not candidates.

    The amount given directly by these billionaires is miniscule — “pocket lint,” in Sorkin’s term. Federal law prevents them from contributing more than $4,600 directly to candidates. (That’s $2,300 for the primaries, $2,300 for the general election.)

    But their donations may give some indication of the candidates they think will win or will be kindest to the now lightly regulated hedge fund market.

    On the strength of the top 10 earners, it would seem that these very rich people are betting on an Obama win.

    However, a look at the full list of top 50 earners reveals a more mixed message.

    Both Clinton and McCain pick up support in the middle and lower ranges of the list, a list that ends with the very wealthy David Shaw of D.E. Shaw & Co. at number 50.

    Shaw, who cleared $210 million in 2007, has given $4,600 to Clinton and $58,500 to Democratic groups, according to openSecrets.org.

    Other managers in the tail end of the top 10 list went with Clinton.

    Thomas Steyer (no. 43), a $230 million earner at Farallon Capital Management, and Marc Lasry (tied for 44), who took in $225 million at Avenue Capital Group, sent money her way.

    (Until she took a leave to help with the campaign, Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, was working for Avenue Capital.)

    Daniel Och of Och-Ziff Capital Management, who was tied for 41st with $245 million in earnings, gave to both Clinton and McCain.

    He also contributed to Giuliani and to another candidate who dropped out, Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut.

    Several other top 50 hedge fund managers have hedged their bets on the presidential race. None did it more broadly than Seth A. Klarman of Baupost Group, Inc., who made $425 million in 2007 and finished at number 15 on the list.

    Klarman has given to Clinton, McCain and Obama. He’s also given to Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, to Dodd, as well as to Sen. Joseph Biden, the one-time Democratic candidate from Delaware.

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  • New Freedom’s Watch looks a lot like old Republican Congressional Committee (Muckety.com)

    Freedom’s Watch was ballyhooed last year as the Republicans’ answer to MoveOn.org. It was to be a grassroots conservative group bankrolled by billionaire conservatives like Sheldon Adelson of the Sands Corp.

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    But after a splashy debut last summer with a $15-million ad blitz supporting American troop escalation in Iraq, came months of silence. Late last month, the board announced that it had replaced president Bradley Blakeman, a former Bush operative, with Carl Forti, political director of Mitt Romney’s campaign and an alumnus of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The New York Times described the group last week as all-but-moribund, an organization “plagued by gridlock and infighting, leaving it struggling for direction.”

    And then, as quick as you can say, ‘tax-and-spend Democrat,” the new Freedom’s Watch arrived this week – running attack ads in Baton Rouge designed to influence a May 3 special election for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional district. The ads portray state Rep. Don Cazayoux as a Democrat who never met a tax he didn’t like. Cazayoux is favored to win in a tight race with former state Rep. Woody Jenkins in a traditionally Republican district.

    There are two potential problems: As a 501(c)(4) organization, Freedom’s Watch cannot coordinate with the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, or advocate for or against a particular candidate.

    Asked about the decision to weigh in on the Louisiana race, Forti told the Washington Post that “tax policy is an enormously important issue nationally, and it is increasingly dominating the public policy debate.” He added that “with the economic slowdown, it’s important taxpayers know Don Cazayoux has a record of voting to raise taxes and fees on everything from groceries to hunting and fishing licenses.”

    But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, saying the ads use the same script as earlier ads from the NRCC, and therefore show illegal coordination.

    Patrick McCarthy, the media consultant who wrote the Cazayoux ad for Freedom’s Watch and a former staffer of the NRCC himself, said an innocent mistake caused the document to appear as if it came from the NRCC. McCarthy said he pulled up an old ad template from his NRCC days and wrote the Louisiana ad script over it, then saved the file and sent it to the TV stations.

    “It’s absurd on the face of it. They’re grasping at straws if they’re saying recycling an old Word document is illegal,” said McCarthy who now works at Designated Market Media, whose partners all come from the RNCC or the Bush White House.

    But perhaps it’s more absurd to think that Freedom’s Watch could be a separate and independent organization when its lineup is also an NRCC alumni Club. Besides Forti and consultant McCarthy, there’s also Ed Patru, a former NRCC spokesman.

  • Ousted Sierra leaders tie suspension to Clorox criticism

    At the very least, the timing raises questions: The biggest environmental group in the U.S. expelled 27 leaders of its Florida chapter shortly after the state committee accused the Sierra Club’s national directors of betraying their principles to endorse a “green” cleaning line by the Clorox Company.

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    Sierra Club spokesman David Willett denied the suspensions had anything to do with disagreements over the group’s partnership with the Oakland-based Clorox. He said the four-year expulsion, which took effect last week, was the last in a series of steps taken to end bitter infighting that had undermined the Florida group’s work.

    Willett noted another state chapter, Massachusetts, had also criticized the Sierra Club’s decision to endorse the new biodegradable cleaning line, “and no action has been taken against them, and there won’t be. That’s not how the Sierra Club works.”

    First announced in January, the unprecedented partnership between the Sierra Club and Clorox has been hailed by supporters as a way to promote a green marketplace, and denounced by critics as a sell-out to a company most closely associated with Clorox Bleach. Under the deal, the Sierra Club gets an undisclosed percentage of profits from the sale of the new line, marketed under the name Green Works, in exchange for the use of its logo.

    At least some ousted activists don’t buy the assertion that their suspension is unrelated to their criticism. Joy Towles Ezell, former chairwoman of the Florida chapter, told the Guardian that the same weekend in January that the chapter passed a measure condemning the deal, they were told of their impending removal.

    She said that the new Clorox products should be named “Money Works” or “Toxic Works.”

    “Clorox is the bad guy to me,” Ezell said. “. . .You sell your soul when you get involved with something like that.”

    Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope admits he was skeptical when first approached by Clorox. But after reviewing the ingredients of the cleaners, most of which are plant products, and contemplating Clorox’s market reach, he decided to take the gamble.

    “One of the reasons green home cleaning products haven’t achieved much market penetration is if they came from an environmental brand, people had the sense they won’t work … And if it came from someone with a cleaning reputation the reaction was: They can’t be green.”

    Green Works may be an even bigger gamble for Clorox’s new CEO Donald Knauss, who came from Cola Cola in 2006, and who has pushed the company to launch its first new product line in 20 years. Knauss has identified sustainability as one of three core consumer trends with which he wanted to align Clorox products, and hired “green” consultants, who led him to the Sierra Club.

    Green consultant Joel Makower, who worked on the project, calls the launch a watershed:

    It’s an intriguing moment. Green Works enters the marketplace with a near perfect storm of market conditions: growing mainstream consumer demand for green products that don’t require compromise or sacrifice; significant interest from Wal-Mart and other big retailers in pushing greener products to the masses; a product that seems competitive with the leading green brands; and endorsement from Big Green.

    Naysayers, however, predict the endorsement will undermine the credibility of the environmental group, noting that a month before the deal was signed, Clorox was fined $95,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency for donating a mislabeled Chinese version of Clorox bleach to a Los Angeles charity.

    “The Sierra Club has become little more than another corporate front group,”
    said Tim Hermach of Native Forest Council in Eugene, Oregon in a piece in Corporate Crime Reporter.

    Hermach had special animus for the group’s executive director: “Carl Pope has sold out the Sierra Club’s mission of saving nature and now seems proud of his role as an obsequious and professional Uriah Heep. As a result, Sierra Club is getting lots of corporate appreciation, cash and favors.”

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    ← Will MTV audience care who rocked the cradle? 
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  • Will MTV audience care who rocked the cradle?

    MTV’s Rock the Cradle has kicked off its debut season, but does the average MTV reality show fan even care about these celebuspawn?

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    The nine contestants are the children of musicians of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. Specifically, they are the offspring of band members from Twisted Sister, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers and the artists MC Hammer, Kenny Loggins, Al. B Sure!, Eddie Money, Bobby Brown and Olivia Newton-John.

    MTV’s website describes the premise of the show, “Yeah, we’re searching for the next superstar, but this isn’t your average, every day singing competition. We’re shining the spotlight on children of rock stars to see who has what it takes to step out of the parental shadow and fulfill their DNA destiny. ‘Cause, really, isn’t everything better when celebrities are involved?”

    But really, how many typical MTV viewers even know the music that made the parents of these contestants famous? Aside from seeing episodes of Being Bobby Brown on Bravo and reruns of the movie Grease on cable, it’s likely that “Hammer time,” would be nothing more than a legend for today’s teens, MTV’s target audience.

    The contestants of Rock the Cradle sing each week, and the one with the highest score from the judges is safe from elimination. The rest have to depend on viewer support to keep them from being kicked off the show.

    The show is judged by Britney Spears’ former manager Larry Rudolph, choreographer Jamie King, and celebrity stylist June Ambrose.

    After the first episode, which aired last week, Lucy Walsh, daughter of The Eagles’ Joe Walsh, received the highest score, which isn’t too surprising. She’s the only contestant who already has a record deal, with Island Records.

    Rock the Cradle may get some success if the contestants can hold audience attention without relying on famous parents. It’s pretty certain that the fans of Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers and Olivia Newton-John aren’t tuning in to MTV regularly.

    Rock the Cradle airs on MTV on Thursday at 10 p.m.

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    ← Cayne, Macklowe keep their condos at The Plaza 
    Ousted Sierra leaders tie suspension to Clorox criticism →

  • Cayne, Macklowe keep their condos at The Plaza

    Another way the rich are different: They don’t have to pay mortgages.

    A case in point: Days before Bear Stearns chairman James Cayne suffered a dizzying $900-million loss in wealth as a result of the fire sale of Bear Stearns, he purchased two apartments in the storied Plaza for a cool $28 million.

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    But not to worry: Cayne, a onetime scrap-iron salesman and recently retired Bear Stearns chief, bought the adjacent apartments overlooking Central Park with cash, according to city records.

    The 1907 landmark, famous as the home of children’s book heroine Eloise, recently reopened as a mix of luxury condos and hotel units. The development boasts a Who’s Who of corporate chieftains, including New England Patriots boss Robert K. Kraft, Staples Chief Executive Ronald Sargent, Italian racing mogul Flavio Briatore and Dave Barger, chief executive of JetBlue.

    Like Cayne, several have been socked by recent gyrations in the real estate and financial markets. Real-estate mogul Harry Macklowe, who spent $60 million last year to buy up a string of adjacent apartments, is facing a mountain of debt himself as a result of a $7 billion, seven-building buy last year. To stave off cash-hungry creditors, he has been trying to unload the iconic General Motors building, and the office tower at 1301 Avenue of the Americas. So far, though, he’s shown no sign of giving up his dream of a palace on the park.

    Italian businessman Luigi Zunino, meanwhile, is trying to flip the third-floor apartment which he is in contract to buy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Zunino is the CEO of a Milan-based real estate company that lost three-quarters of its value in the last year. While most condos in The Plaza have been selling for between $4,000 and $6,000 per square foot, Zunino is valuing his apartment at $10,000 per square foot.

    If he gets his $100-million asking price, it would set a record for residential real estate in Manhattan. If not, maybe he can start a support group for onetime Masters of the Universe in the Oak Room.

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    ← Heston’s journey from left to right 
    Will MTV audience care who rocked the cradle? →

  • Geoffrey Garin fills Penn’s post in Clinton campaign

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton replaced one pollster and a strategist with another Sunday, letting Mark Penn go and filling his place with Geoffrey Garin.

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    In elevating Garin, Clinton gives prominence to a Washington insider who is well connected and seems to carry little of the baggage Penn brought to his role.

    The adjective “well-respected” seems glued to Garin’s name in press accounts. The adjectives “controversial,” “abrasive,” “gruff” and “rumpled” were always pasted on Penn.

    Penn had been serving as Clinton’s chief political strategist until he stepped down Sunday. He is also the chief executive of the Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm.

    Reportedly, Clinton had been angered that Penn and Burson-Marsteller were working to help the government of Colombia obtain a trade agreement with the United States.

    Clinton opposes the alliance. Penn’s connection to Colombia could have hurt her with voters in the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

    “The important thing is just to win,” Garin told The Washington Post after he took over for Penn. “My view is the campaign has to focus on the work of April and May and the early part of June and do well at all of that. So on one level, first things first.”

    Garin, 54, who joined the Clinton campaign last month as a pollster, has been president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates since 1984. He joined the company in 1978 as a senior analyst and vice president.

    While at the company, he has worked as a pollster and strategist for several Democratic senatorial candidates. They include Charles Schumer of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California and Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

    He has also worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers.

    Garin’s connections to unions could help Clinton in Pennsylvania with some of the voters she needs to win the state and slow the momentum of Sen. Barack Obama.

    Evan Miller of The New Argument blog notes that Garin gave some unsolicited advice to the Clinton campaign in February, advice the campaign ignored.

    “If I were Hillary Clinton, the last thing I’d be doing is talking about super delegates, because the voters don’t want to hear that,” Garin said. “She really needs to make the case about why she’s the better candidate to lead the country.”

    In other comments, Garin has emphasized the importance of speaking to the economic issues that are on people’s minds.

    But at this moment in the Clinton campaign, personnel issues may be as important as policy issues.

    Penn was in the middle of months of internal fighting. He seemed to have alienated everyone but Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton.

    Wolfson and Garin don’t have this history of contention, The Washington Post reported.

    “People like Howard and Geoff,” one campaign aide said. “I presume there will be less strife.”

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    2 Comments

    • #1.   Perry Washburn 04.10.2008

      Found Muckety by accident. Has the TU come back to life?

    • #2.   Carol Eisenberg 04.10.2008

      Hey Perry. No corporate overseer in this iteration.

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