Soros Fingerprints on DeLay Frame-up

All three of DeLay's leading foes have ties to Soros and to his political machine of sufficient strength as to cast doubt on their motivations.

Senator John McCain is allied even more closely with Soros. In 1994, Soros and a cabal of leftwing foundations undertook a $140-million crusade to pressure Congress into passing what is now known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) or, more popularly, the McCain-Feingold Act.(7)

McCain rode Soros’ coattails to media celebrity. Campaign finance reform made him the darling of Washington’s press corps. Carrying Soros’ water also brought financial benefits. Soros’ Open Society Institute has donated generously to McCain’s Reform Institute for Campaign and Election Issues. (8)

Tom DeLay’s most dangerous and persistent foe is the network of "public interest" non-profit groups and corrupt media hacks which together constitute the Soros Noise Machine. Ronnie Earle and John McCain may or may not succeed in making their charges against DeLay stick. But, as long as Soros and his donor network keep pouring money into the Soros Noise Machine, it will continue pounding DeLay, year after year, with a ceaseless drumbeat of accusations, in the form of books, films, press releases, push polls and TV ad campaigns.

All of the groups named above have received large contributions from Soros' Open Society Institute. Common Cause has received $650,000; Democracy 21, $300,000; Public Citizen, $275,000; and Public Campaign, $1.3 million.(10) The Campaign Legal Center acknowledges on its Web site that it too has received "generous financial support" from the Open Society Institute as well as from other leftwing foundations.

Both partners in the anti-DeLay ad campaign have received heavy funding from Soros. CAF — a subsidiary of the Institute for America's Future (IAF) — has received more than $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute. The Public Campaign Action Fund is an affiliate of the above-mentioned Public Campaign, which has received $1.3 million from Soros.(11)

The propaganda din from Soros-sponsored "watchdog" groups helps feed the every-hungry media with anti-Delay stories.

Co-author Dubose appears as a commentator in the still-unfinished documentary film The Big Buy, in which leftwing filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck chronicle Ronnie Earle’s pursuit of Tom DeLay.(12)

Dubose's and Reid's book The Hammer was published in October 2004 by Public Affairs Books of New York, an imprint of The Perseus Books Group, which in turn is owned by Perseus LLC, a merchant bank and fund management company, with offices in New York and Washington, DC.

The money trail strongly suggests that George Soros is implicated in the plot to frame Tom DeLay.

Before we allow a crooked county prosecutor to unseat one of America's preeminent leaders, it behooves us to investigate further. We must demand of Mr. Soros what he and his hired retainers have long demanded of Tom DeLay — transparency and accountability.

No longer can we allow wealthy puppeteers to manipulate our government from the shadows. It is time to flood those shadows with light.

6. S.C. Gwynne,"The Daughter Also Rises",Texas Monthly, August 2004, p 112; David Horowitz and Richard Poe, "The Shadow Party" (Parts I-III), FrontPageMagazine.com, October 6, 7, 11, 2004

Another Related Article:

Watchdogs in Soros's pocket - Against GOP & Tom DeLay
By Alexander Bolton, The Hill
March 23, 2005

House Republicans are taking the offensive in the burgeoning ethics war on Capitol Hill by circulating research that details links among Democrats, George Soros and government watchdog groups that have criticized Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and the House ethics process.

The research shows that members of these groups’ boards have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and political organizations and several of their staff members have previously worked for Democrats. The groups have also accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Open Society Institute, an organization founded by Soros, who spent millions trying to defeat President Bush in last year’s election.

The emergence of the detailed research follows talking points that the Republican National Committee (RNC) distributed last week labeling four government watchdog groups as liberal and having “close ties to left wing leaders like George Soros.” Together, the documents indicate a concerted Republican effort to quell what has become a media feeding frenzy surrounding DeLay and allegations of his improper conduct.

Over a five-day span, ending last Thursday, TV and radio stations and print publications from around the country featured at least 290 stories either about a controversial junket he took to Scotland in 2000, his response to criticism about the propriety of that trip or his offer to discuss the matter with the House ethics committee, according to a survey. The articles by The Associated Press, Reuters, Knight Ridder and The Washington Post were picked up by news outlets around the country.

The latest spate of broadcasts and articles, a glut of the type of negative coverage that has plagued DeLay in recent years, likely explains why his name identification has risen from 46 percent to 76 percent between September 1999 and last month, according to several CNN/USA Today/ Gallup surveys of adults nationwide, cited by Democrats. During the same span, DeLay’s unfavorable ratings have swelled from 11 percent to 24 percent, according to the same surveys.

“The DeLay scandal is getting to the point where House Republicans just won’t be able to withstand much more,” a Democratic aide said. “With every story that is written, it becomes more clear that House Republicans are risking their political futures by associating themselves with him. When literally hundreds of stories about the GOP leader’s shoddy ethics are appearing in nearly every local and regional paper across the country, you can’t blame voters for painting them all with the same brush.”

Last week’s focus on House ethics was spurred in part by a press conference held last Tuesday by members of the Congressional Ethics Coalition, a group of nine government watchdog groups. The conference was called to decry the immobilization of the House ethics panel, which has yet to organize because of objections by ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) to changes House GOP leaders made to ethics procedure at the start of the new Congress. But watchdog groups also used the opportunity to attack DeLay.

Later that day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered a resolution on the House floor calling for a bipartisan panel to review the chamber’s ethics procedures.

Republicans charge this and other evidence reveals a coordinated effort between House Democrats and government watchdog groups to damage DeLay and the GOP leadership politically. GOP aides point to a plan being crafted by Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to use ethics as a touchstone in races against DeLay and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), as The Hill reported last week.
One target of Republican criticism is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the group that last year assisted former Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) in drafting an ethics complaint against DeLay, which resulted in an admonishment of DeLay from the ethics committee. At last week’s press conference, Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said that DeLay should step down as majority leader.

From 1995 to 1998, CREW’s Sloan served as minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee under Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Before that, Sloan served as the nominations counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.).

According to GOP research, Mark Penn, who had been a pollster for President Clinton, and Daniel Berger, a major Democratic donor, are on CREW’s board. Spokeswoman Naomi Seligman declined several requests to reveal the membership of CREW’s board, although she confirmed that Penn and Berger are members. Last year, Berger made a $100,000 contribution to America Coming Together (ACT), a 527 group that was dedicated to defeating Bush in the presidential election, according to politicalmoneyline.com, a website that tracks fundraising.

CREW declined to respond to the RNC talking points or House GOP research.

Another target is Democracy 21, headed by Fred Wertheimer. GOP research showed that the group’s board of directors has given “tens of thousands to Democrats.” A survey by The Hill of fundraising data on politicalmoneyline.com showed that three members of the group’s board, including Dick Clark, a former Democratic senator from Iowa, gave nearly $20,000 in contributions to Democrats since the beginning of the 2000 election cycle. Republicans received nothing from board members, according to the survey by The Hill.

Lexa Edsall, a consultant to the group, served in the Clinton administration, and Amanda Lewis, the communications director, worked for former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo (N.Y.), according to the GOP research. Wertheimer confirmed the information about Edsall and Lewis, adding that Lewis worked as an intern at Cuomo’s law firm, suggesting that Republicans have left few stones unturned in their efforts to discredit the watchdog groups.

Democracy 21’s education fund also received a $50,000 grant from Soros’s institute in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available, according to a 990 form filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The GOP research paper states that the group has received $300,000 in total from the Open Society Institute.

Wertheimer responded by noting that he has in the past asked for a Justice Department investigation of President Clinton’s campaign finances and filed Federal Election Committee (FEC) complaints against former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). He also provided a letter from former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie for comments Wertheirmer filed with the FEC arguing for greater restriction of 527 political groups, which Democrats relied on in 2004.

Mark H. Rodeffer contributed to this article.

Here's another hit piece by Soro's Mafia that came out on Bloomberg 2 hours ago. Notice Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, part of Soro's mob, in the article. Dems are f---ing crazy if they think the public is going to put them back into power to clean up Federal corruption. What a joke! - fla

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McCrery, Oxley, DeLay Use Contributions for Jets, Resorts, Golf
Oct. 10, 2005 (Bloomberg)

For U.S. congressmen such as Michael Oxley, Jim McCrery and Tom DeLay, the perks of power are found in five-star hotels, corporate jets and fundraisers at golf resorts.

They are among the top 10 congressional spenders on luxury travel financed by their ``leadership political action committees,'' Federal Election Commission data shows. Lawmakers set up such PACs to channel donations into their allies' election campaigns, helping them build loyalty and influence. They're increasingly using the PACs to throw costly fundraisers -- often elevating their lifestyles in the process.

``Members use them as slush funds,'' says Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based advocacy group that's pushing for tougher campaign-finance laws. ``You just don't have to do this to raise money.''

The number of leadership PACs is surging as lawmakers seek ways to overcome campaign-finance limits. And the committees are drawing closer scrutiny since DeLay, 58, a Texas Republican, was indicted last week on money-laundering charges stemming from cash transfers by an offshoot of his leadership PAC.

More than 40 percent of the members of Congress now have leadership PACs, which can take in higher donations from companies than can the campaign committees that all lawmakers set up to finance re-elections. The PACs' expenditures also aren't regulated, giving lawmakers wide latitude in spending money they get from such companies as General Electric Co. and FedEx Corp., two of the biggest donors.

Overhead - Many leadership PACs spend so much putting on fundraisers that their expenses outstrip the amount of money they give to candidates or parties. Republican Oxley's PAC this year has spent $292,458 on overhead -- everything from consultants to ski-lift tickets to postage bills -- while giving $114,000 in donations.

The PAC of Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, spent $168,807 on overhead, including $24,821 at the five-star Ritz Carlton Hotel in Naples, Florida. In the first eight months of the year, it gave $52,500 to candidates and party committees.

McCrery, 56, a Louisiana Republican and member of the tax- writing House Ways & Means Committee, is the top spender on luxury travel associated with fund-raisers, according to a review of FEC disclosures by Bloomberg News and PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington- based company that tracks spending in politics.

Five Stars - The ranking is based on a tally of stays at the 31 U.S. hotels awarded five stars by the Mobil Travel Guide; reimbursements for corporate air travel; and expenses for fundraisers featuring ski and golf trips identified through a search of Federal Election Commission databases. The analysis didn't include candidates' individual campaign committees, which also sometimes pay for such travel. It only looked at expenses that have been reported so far this year, so some PACS with late annual events aren't included.

The records show McCrery paid at least $98,237 from his PAC in the first eight months of the year for such luxuries. Next on the list is Oxley, 61, whose name has been synonymous with good corporate governance since his sponsorship of the 2002 Sarbanes- Oxley law, which cracked down on fraudulent accounting by companies.

The Ohio Republican spent at least $93,876 on luxuries, including more than $40,000 at a Vail ski resort in January. In the first eight months of the year, Oxley took at least 14 trips on corporate aircraft, including those of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group Co., which has a fleet of Gulfstream luxury jets. On the ski trip to Vail, he charged his PAC for ski wear, lodging and lift tickets, and hosted at least three golf fundraisers. While he was in New York for a May fundraiser, his PAC paid for a stay at the Peninsula Hotel on 5th Avenue, where standard rooms start at $625 a night.

A Democrat - Missouri Representative Roy Blunt, 55, who last month replaced DeLay as House majority leader, was next, spending at least $84,842. DeLay ranked sixth, spending at least $46,298 from his leadership PAC on luxuries. One Democrat, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, 66, made the top-10 list, spending $41,393.

Some lawmakers say the need to hold costly golf and ski events has increased since unregulated ``soft-money'' contributions were banned by Congress in 2002, making it harder to raise funds.

``When we take trips to raise money, folks want to go to nice places,'' says Chambliss, 61, who is seventh on the list. While his supporters ``do have the opportunity to enjoy themselves,'' the point is to raise money, he said. ``That's the purpose of a leadership PAC.''

`Try to Be Unique' - Says Pamela Sederholm, treasurer for Oxley's PAC: ``Others may find that they're attractive events that people want to participate in.'' Locations sometimes require the use of jets, she says. Sean Spicer, a spokesman for Ohio Republican Deborah Pryce, who ranked ninth on the list, says Pryce seeks to hold events that people enjoy. ``You try to be unique,'' Spicer says.

Aides to McCrery, DeLay and Blunt didn't respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment. Hoyer's spokeswoman, Stacey Bernards, declined to comment.

The fundraising success of Senator Richard Shelby, 71, an Alabama Republican, suggests extravagance isn't the only, or even the most efficient, route to collecting money.

Shelby, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, oversees the same industry as Oxley, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Unlike Oxley, Shelby hasn't reported taking any corporate jets this year, has hosted no golf tournaments, hasn't stayed at a five-star hotel and hasn't used his PAC money to buy lift tickets. Yet his PAC took in $718,469 in the first eight months, 40 percent more than Oxley's ``Leadership PAC 2006,'' and has more cash on hand than any other committee, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.

`Not Casting Judgment' - Senator Charles Schumer, 54, a New York Democrat whose leadership PAC has taken in $51,000 this year, has also spent nothing on corporate jets, five-star hotels, golf tournaments or skiing, according to his campaign accounts. ``I'm not casting judgment on anyone else,'' Schumer said in an interview. ``I just don't do it.''

Leadership PACs are attractive to lawmakers in part because federal law allows donors to give six times as much to them as they can to campaign committees. Top corporate donors so far this year include Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, whose political action committee has given at least $187,500; Memphis-based FedEx, which has donated $180,000; and San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., which has given $178,449, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Spokesmen for GE and FedEx didn't return phone calls seeking comment. SBC spokesman Mike Balmoris declined to comment.

Even Freshmen - Traditionally the province of senior lawmakers, leadership PACs are even being set up by freshmen such as Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama, 44, who says they are ``an important tool to help other people get elected.'' In 1992, 63 members of Congress had such committees. By last year, the number had climbed to 231, 43 percent of all federal lawmakers, according to figures provided by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Bristow, Virginia-based company that tracks money in politics.

In the two-year run-up to the 2004 election, leadership PACs raised at least $127 million, up from $96 million in the 2000 election. For 2006, the committees are on pace to match or exceed that record, raising at least $43 million through August, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.

DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, or Armpac, is one of the biggest around: It gave more money to candidates for the 2004 elections than any other leadership PAC, with $1.2 million in donations, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.

Indictment - DeLay was indicted by Texas grand juries on Sept. 28 and Oct. 3 on charges that he and two associates took corporate donations through an offshoot of Armpac, then funneled the money through the Republican National Committee and back into Texas races, in violation of state law. DeLay denies any wrongdoing.

Trevor Potter, a former FEC commissioner, says leadership PACs weren't covered by federal restrictions imposed 16 years ago on the use of campaign funds to pay for personal expenses because few people had heard of them then.

``They were not a glimmer in anyone's eye,'' says Potter, 49, now a partner at Caplin & Drysdale, a Washington law firm. ``Congress's goal was to cut off slush funds, and I'm confident they would have included leadership PACs had they existed back in 1989.''

The following table lists the biggest spenders on luxury items from their leadership PACs for the first eight months of 2005. The amounts are the sum of spending on golf and ski trip fund-raisers, reimbursements for corporate air travel, and stays at five-star hotels as ranked by the Mobil Travel Guide.

Lawmaker Party Amount
Representative Jim McCrery Republican $98,237
Representative Michael Oxley Republican $93,876
Representative Roy Blunt Republican $84,842
Representative Eric Cantor Republican $60,144
Senator Thad Cochran* Republican $54,568
Representative Tom DeLay Republican $46,298
Senator Saxby Chambliss Republican $44,984
Representative Steny Hoyer Democratic $41,393
Representative Deborah Pryce Republican $38,447
Senator Judd Gregg* Republican $37,014

*Cochran and Gregg's amount is through first six months of the year

To contact the reporters on this story:
Michael Forsythe in Washington at mforysthe@bloomberg.net;
Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 10, 2005 00:01 EDT

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