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Soros blasts Hastert over drug allegation (crybaby Soros says his "character's" defamed)
THE HILL ^ | 9/1/04 | Jonathan E. Kaplan

Posted on 09/16/2004 5:06:19 AM PDT by Liz

Billionaire demands public apology from the House Speaker

George Soros, the billionaire financier who has given millions of dollars to liberal and Democratic-leaning advocacy groups, launched a blistering counterattack on Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) yesterday, saying he should be “ashamed” of allegations he made Sunday.

Hastert had suggested that Soros’s wealth came from criminals, and in a letter Soros challenged the Speaker to substantiate his claims or publicly apologize.

In a tartly worded demand faxed to Hastert, Soros wrote: “Your recent comments implying that I am receiving funds from drug cartels are not only untrue, but also deeply offensive. You do a discredit to yourself and to the dignity of your office by engaging in these dishonest smear tactics. You should be ashamed.

“I must respectfully insist that you either substantiate these claims — which you cannot do because they are false — or publicly apologize for attempting to defame my character and damage my reputation.”

The spat began in an interview on Fox News with anchor Chris Wallace, in which Hastert said, “You know, I don’t know where George Soros gets his money. I don’t know where — if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. …”

Asked if Soros had earned money from drug cartels, Hastert added, “Well, that’s what he’s been for a number years — George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he’s got a lot of ancillary interests out there. … I’m saying I don’t know where groups — could be people who support this type of thing. I’m saying we don’t know.”

Soros, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, earned billions from investments and currency speculation. In 1992, he bet $10 billion that the British central bank would devalue the pound. The gamble paid off and Soros earned $650 million that year. Soros Fund Management LLC was hammered in the late 1990s and Soros has since retired, although he remains chairman.

In 1993, he started the Open Society Institute, which promotes democracy in Eastern Europe and around the world. He began funding programs to reform the U.S. justice system several years later. As part of that effort, he has funded marijuana-legalization referendums in California and Arizona. Besides the Open Society Institute, Soros is also a major contributor to the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based operation that monitors violence in global hot spots.

But he is most widely known in this election season as a big contributor to MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank, and America Coming Together, a so-called 527 political outfit that is exempt from limits on campaign contributions.

John Feehery, a spokesman for Hastert, said, “George Soros has an agenda. He supports the legalization of drugs, and the statement stands. [Hastert] has been fighting Soros on this for years because it is a character flaw. The Speaker thinks legalizing drugs is wrong.”

Soros was unavailable for comment.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) say that no company official in Soros’s investment fund is involved in a criminal proceeding or a party to a civil proceeding.

Feehery cited no evidence and would not comment on whether Hastert would ask law enforcement to investigate.

Soros told The Washington Post last year: “America, under Bush, is a danger to the world. … And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.”

Conservatives have sought to discredit Soros by attacking his foreign and Jewish roots and his support of liberal causes, and by saying that his currency speculation actually hurt the very people he claims to want to help.

“No other single person represents the symbol and the substance of globalism more than this Hungarian-born descendant of Shylock. He is the embodiment of the Merchant from Venice,” wrote GOPAC, an organization that helps elect GOP candidates, on its website last year.

In William Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” Shylock was the Jewish banker whose venality would not stop him from cutting human flesh to repay loans.

Tony Blankley, the editorial-page editor of The Washington Times, said Soros is “a robber baron, he’s a pirate capitalist, and he’s a reckless man” in an interview on Fox News.

Democrats were quick to criticize Hastert’s latest suggestion. “That’s totally absurd. It fits a pattern of simply throwing out whatever slander occurs to them,” the Republicans, said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee in New York. “This is what the Republican leadership does. They lie about people.”

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© 2004 The Hill 733 Fifteenth Street, NW Suite 1140 Washington, DC 20005 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: drugs; drugwar; hastert; opensociety; opensocietyinstitute; osi; soros; warchild; warondrugs; wod; wodlist
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Crybaby Soros now wants an ethics investigation into Hastert, accroding to AP reports. Boo---fricking---hoo.

Go play with your money, Soros, and leave our government alone. Stop buying our elections, and what's more, if you don't like it, get the hell out of our country.

1 posted on 09/16/2004 5:06:19 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz
Even the French consider him a criminal.
2 posted on 09/16/2004 5:07:54 AM PDT by Senator Goldwater
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To: Liz
George Soros has an agenda. He supports the legalization of drugs

Doesn't that mean that Soros is a Libertarian?

3 posted on 09/16/2004 5:11:10 AM PDT by Old Sarge (ZOT 'em all, let MOD sort 'em out!)
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To: Liz

"“You know, I don’t know where George Soros gets his money. I don’t know where — if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. …”"

Hastert said, "I don't know," so what is Soros suing?

It's about time the Republicans used the same word games against the opposition.



4 posted on 09/16/2004 5:11:30 AM PDT by OpusatFR (Let me repeat this: the web means never having to swallow leftist garbage again. Got it?)
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To: Liz
Run the turd out on a rail.

Time to REVOKE his citizenship.



John Kerry and George Sorea$$ caught in a candid moment.
5 posted on 09/16/2004 5:12:18 AM PDT by gunnygail (Founding member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. (I operate the minigun, more fun):.)
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To: Liz

Hey Rather! Investigate Soro's involvement in Kosovo, now!


6 posted on 09/16/2004 5:12:57 AM PDT by BigLittle
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To: Liz

Is Soros even an American citizen?


7 posted on 09/16/2004 5:13:45 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Liz

I saw this interview with Frist and Hastert. Hastert was refering to people who want to legalize drugs in this country, not drug cartels. Chris Wallace brought up drug cartells and Hastert fumbled a little trying to explain what he meant.


8 posted on 09/16/2004 5:15:27 AM PDT by normy (Just cause you think you can box, doesn't mean you're ready to climb in the ring with Ali.)
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To: Liz

Soros won't sue, that would cause an investigation into where his money is coming from. UNFORTUNATELY, he is smarter than that.


9 posted on 09/16/2004 5:21:06 AM PDT by OnAMission
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To: TexasCajun

Soros is an American citizen.

If I remember correctly, the Russians have had a warrant for his arrest for a few years, but we refuse to extradite him.

Seems that georgie-porgie was playing with Russian money and the Rouble plummetted to one-sixth its value in just a few months.

Georgie was selling the rouble short, of course.

The Russians raided his offices and arrested a number of his Moscow cronies, but they would love to get their hands on him.

It seems that some of georgie-porgie's money has also found its way into the coffers of the Chechen terrorists.

What a nice man.


10 posted on 09/16/2004 5:22:28 AM PDT by Westbrook
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To: Liz

On Bill O'Reilly's show two nights ago he had a Democrat from the Congressional Black Caucus on that made allegations that Rush Limbaugh was a drug dealer and that Mr. O hung around with Rush therefore he was associating with drug dealers..


11 posted on 09/16/2004 5:22:56 AM PDT by stockpirate (Kerry; supported by, financed by, trained by, guided by, revered by, in favor of, Communists.)
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To: Liz

Methinks a swift FBI raid and a fast extradition to Mother Russia is in order. If we are to take the WoT seriously, a chief financier like Sorea$$ MUST GO!


12 posted on 09/16/2004 5:25:26 AM PDT by gunnygail (Founding member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. (I operate the minigun, more fun):.)
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To: Liz

So wonder what little money scam Soros and Hillry have planned for us next month.

Amazing how "rich" liberals make their money ripping off the masses, then accuse the conservatives of a "right wing conspiracy"....

Some pigs are just more equal, under what ever it takes.


13 posted on 09/16/2004 5:27:06 AM PDT by Just mythoughts
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To: Liz
Conservatives have sought to discredit Soros by attacking his foreign and Jewish roots and his support of liberal causes, and by saying that his currency speculation actually hurt the very people he claims to want to help.

Conservatives haven't attacked his jewish roots- and that's all there is to them is dried out 'roots' since he's more interested in promoting Islam. He's more of a threat to judaism.

14 posted on 09/16/2004 5:28:34 AM PDT by piasa (Piranhas For Truth)
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To: Grampa Dave; Senator Goldwater; onyx; Fracas; PhiKapMom; Conspiracy Guy; mhking; mewzilla; ...

BACKSTORY HEADER: BILLIONAIRE BUSH BASHER SOROS CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING THREAD Tuesday Nov. 11, 2003

Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros has gotten a lot of press, mostly over his comments when he likened President Bush to Adolf Hitler, then reiterated his promise to spend whatever it takes to defeat Bush at the polls.

But none of the reports mentioned one salient fact: the Democratic Party's great rich hope was convicted of insider trading circa 2002.

Before Soros announced his intention to bankroll the Dems' bid to topple Bush, press accounts were a lot more candid about his checkered background.

The Washington Post had a piece on the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks five months before he surfaced as an election spoiler.


In Soros, we have an international criminal, a billionaire who is trying to singlehandedly manipulate American elections through shady, unregulated "527" organizations.

The American voter does not appreciate the shady tycoon's attempts to manipulate our elections.

Criminal mastermind Soros better be worried. We got some of our best FRreepers on his tail.


15 posted on 09/16/2004 5:28:45 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz; Grampa Dave
(MOVEON.ORG CREATES WEB SITE MISLEADER.ORG) Organization: EliPariser, Registrant ; 452W57thSt , NewYork ,:NY , 10019, US , 646/326-6333; Email:eli.pariser@moveon.org - sourcec: whois.publicinterestregistry.net* The Mislead is a new project of the increasingly influential liberal organization MoveOn.org, which claims to reach more than two million activists and recently received a donation of up to $5 million from philanthropist George Soros, who is working to prevent President Bush's re-election. The Daily Mislead claims that it provides "an accurate daily chronicle for journalists of misrepresentations, distortions and downright misleading statements by President Bush and the Bush Administration," but in most cases since its first issue on Sept. 15, it has done nothing of the kind. Instead, despite numerous examples of actual deception by the Bush administration, the Mislead has generally presented a series of partisan accusations of dishonesty based on nothing more than political disagreement. Like too many participants in the media bias debate, MoveOn is churning out a series of analyses designed to support a preconceived agenda--whether the facts fit the case or not.- "Who's Lying Now?," Opinion Journal via http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1037366/posts
16 posted on 09/16/2004 5:33:59 AM PDT by piasa (Piranhas For Truth)
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To: Liz

Actually it is a very good move to draw the crazy Soros and his money out into daylight as often as possible between now and the election. The more Soros appears on TV repeating his loony leftist stuff and how he will bring Bush down using all his billions, the more most voters will be repusled with him and linked his desire to control the US to Kerry.


17 posted on 09/16/2004 5:35:58 AM PDT by rod1
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To: piasa
Soros is also spending a bloody fortune on the U.S. presidential race, making the defeat of President Bush at the polls next year "the central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." This week, he committed $5 million to MoveOn.org, a left-wing activist group begun to aid President Clinton during his impeachment battle. The new donation brought to $15.5 million the total he has contributed to oust Bush from power. "If necessary, I would give more money," the 74-year-old told the Washington Post. "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world. And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is." He likened Bush to the Nazis and said he believes a supremacist ideology" guides the White House. "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans."
------------ "Joseph Farah: "Meet a Real Capitalist Pig" {George Soros}," by Farah, Joseph, WND.com, 11-12-03 Posted: November 12, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
18 posted on 09/16/2004 5:36:29 AM PDT by piasa (Piranhas For Truth)
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To: Liz
JUNE 2003 : (SOROS CUTTING BACK ON THE WORK HIS FOUNDATION, THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE, DOES IN RUSSIA SO THAT HE COULD FOCUS ON ATTACKING THE US BUSH ADMINISTRATION) Last June, the billionaire investor George Soros announced that he was cutting back the work his foundation, the Open Society Institute, did in Russia so that he could focus his attention on the United States. The change was needed, Soros told reporters in Moscow, because the political scene in America had become "quite dangerous." In the Bush administration, Soros explained, "the executive branch has come under the influence of a group of ideologues who have forgotten the first principle of an open society: that they don't have a monopoly on truth." Soros, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hungary, said President Bush had "abused" the September 11 terrorist attacks as a pretext to expand his own power and to run roughshod over other nations. Soros has included these concerns in a book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, due out next January [2004], which will attack the so-called arrogance of the president's policies. --- "By George: The Democratic party is now brought to you by super-investors," by Byron York, National Review, 11/10/03, http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1019439/posts
19 posted on 09/16/2004 5:37:19 AM PDT by piasa (Piranhas For Truth)
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To: Liz

And what about all those people that were reduced to poverty because of Soros, when he was playing with the money of their countries. Do not forget how he got his billions - playing the currency market and bringing some to ruin.


20 posted on 09/16/2004 5:40:09 AM PDT by YOUGOTIT
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