Thread: Obama Lied: Accepted Lobbyist Money

Obama fans, duck and cover.

July 30, 2008
By Anna Palmer
Roll Call Staff


Lobbyists might be persona non grata on the presidential campaign trail, but that hasn’t put them off of donating to the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).


Obama has pledged to forgo contributions from federally registered lobbyists. Yet, more than 40 have donated nearly $15,000 to his presidential campaign this year, according to records recently filed with the Senate and House.

The latest tally, as of Tuesday, comes as lobbyists have begun filing their LD-203 forms, a requirement of the Honest Government and Open Leadership Act of 2007. The provision requires lobbyists and all lobbying organizations to file forms to the Senate and House by July 30 and Jan. 30 that list ties to political action committees, federal campaign contributions over $200 and expenditures for events that honor officials covered by the law.

On the GOP side, more than 440 lobbyists have contributed to presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain’s (Ariz.) presidential bid this year. While the McCain campaign has taken a hard line on lobbyist involvement in his campaign recently, he has not pro- hibited them from contributing. The list is not exhaustive because the deadline for filing is today.

The Obama campaign said it has not changed its policy regarding lobbyist contributions and that it continues to take steps to ensure such contributions are returned.

“Individuals who donate either have to check a box indicating that they are not a federally registered lobbyist, or fill out a donor card with a disclaimer that says we don’t accept lobbyist money,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an e-mail. “For when these voluntary measures fail, we also check contributions against a database and decline or return all contributions from federally registered lobbyists.”

Despite those measures, only two of the 42 federally registered contributing lobbyists, David Taylor of Weil Gotshal & Manges and Kyle Danish of Van Ness Feldman, reported on their forms that the Obama campaign had refunded their money.

Others say that since their initial donation, they’ve received several fundraising requests.

“I sent a small check,” said Victor Kamber, a lobbyist at Carmen Group Inc. who gave Obama $200 after he had maxed out to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign. “Since then I’ve been heavily inundated.”
Kamber, who is registered to lobby on behalf of Washington Hospital Center and MedStar Health, says he hasn’t received a refund from Obama.

This is the first time that campaign contributions, which are also disclosed by candidates at the Federal Election Commission, are being reported to Congress.

Many of the lobbyists who reported campaign contributions work for nonprofit organizations, including the Wilderness Society, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. Additionally, several of the contributions were in increments under the $200 threshold that triggers reporting.

The new form spurred some lobbyists to evaluate whether they were required to register and to terminate some registrations that were out of date.

For example, Elliot Feldman of Baker Hostetler said he terminated his registration on behalf of San Antonio Trade Group Inc. in July because the work he had done to help craft legislation to require an inspector general to oversee the export- import bank was completed nearly two years ago.

“The fact that the [Lobbying Disclosure Act] required me to register frankly didn’t even occur to me when I made the campaign donation,” Feldman said of his $2,300 contribution to Obama. “The lobbying I did had less than nothing to do with Sen. Obama or committees he was on. It was completely unrelated.”

Similarly, Donald Barry of the Wilderness Society, who gave Obama $2,050, has terminated his registration for the group.

Feldman says he draws a distinction between lobbyists and lawyers like himself.

“I don’t grease palms; I advocate,” Feldman said. “When clients buy the services of a lobbyist, they buy access. When people buy the services of a lawyer, you buy advocacy.”
Obama doesn’t make that distinction. Instead, his campaign uses the trigger of registering as a federal lobbyist as the marker of whether it will accept donations. Further, Obama’s campaign says that the new disclosure, which Obama supported, is another means for it to track whether contributors are lobbyists.

Lobbyists Give to Obama Campaign - Roll Call

Well, it was hard to dig up, especially with a google search engine.

Why isn't it national news? Because the MSM is in the tank for Obama. Is there really anyone that can deny that now?

To the credit of Fox News, they did report it in a brief segment on "Special Report" during the Political Grapevine segment. That segment is linked here.

The real kick in the teeth for Obama fans is that the campaign requested MORE money from the flagged lobbyists.

Imagine if a republican made a "no lobbyist money" pledge and broke it. The press would have a field day with that.

It won't matter to Dems. They subscribe to "ends justifies the mean" moral relativism. Obama must do everything in his power to get elected in their minds.

I'm stocking up on free razorblades for Dems come November.

If a dem comes on here and defends Obama on this account, then I'm concerned that Obamamania is actually some form of a dehabilitating disease.

Wait a sec . . .

. . .

. . .

Oh yeah, I forgot. It already is. Silly me.

I don't like Obama, but seriously... 15k / 40 = 375$

What do you want to lobby for with 375 dollars? 0,1% more chocolate in the cookies in the country school restaurants? "Hey Obama, do as we say, we gave you 375$ for your campaign!".

It's perfectly understandable why such small sums aren't all controlled. His HQ must be receiving thousands of them.

I begin to think being blindly biased to the point of becoming brain dead is a cultural thing in the US.

I might add that Mac Cain fans should better NOT give lessons on lobbies (when he's employing lobbyists in his campaign, such as Christian Ferry).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us...nd%20Lobbyists
"The proposed firm never took off. But Pegasus also offered another opportunity to advisers, like Mr. Davis and Mr. Manafort, who worked with it — the chance to get in on some of its investments. In November 2005, Pegasus bought a stake in a company called Traxys, which trades in industrial metals.
In January 2006, just two months later, the subject of metals trading came up in association with a social meeting Mr. Davis helped arrange near Davos, Switzerland. At that meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, Mr. McCain met the Russian aluminum magnate, Oleg Deripaska, who has been barred from entering the United States apparently because of alleged criminal ties.
After the event, Mr. Deripaska sent a brief thank-you note to Mr. Davis and Mr. Manafort. In it, he said, “Please will you send me the information on the metals trading company we discussed and would be happy to see if I can do anything to help.”

You want your country policies dictated by foreign rich money (Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia)? Vote Mac Cain!
You want your country policies dictated by a demagogue populist ignorant rock star? Vote Obama!
No wonder you don't trust your governments anymore

Originally Posted by Kyryahn

You want your country policies dictated by foreign rich money (Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia)? Vote Mac Cain!
You want your country policies dictated by a demagogue populist ignorant rock star? Vote Obama!
No wonder you don't trust your governments anymore

It's amazing that someone from France understands that while the average American does not. Actually, it's not amazing, it's pathetic.

Typical ant-Obama much ado about nothing.

The mainstream media has "picked up on this" because there's nothing worth picking up.

Keep trying girls.

Originally Posted by Bourne

Typical ant-Obama much ado about nothing.

The mainstream media has "picked up on this" because there's nothing worth picking up.

Keep trying girls.

Good point!
The Republicans have no other tactic other than to throw mud at Obama....What the hell are they going to point to with pride from thier own side?? (The economy?...our foreign policy?)
They are a pathetic bunch that even true Republicans can't stand this year!

As far as the main stream media is concerned, their only interest is to keep their viewers tuned in for their next commercial! (It's kinda like a blowout football game where the network broadcasters will make stuff up just to keep us glued to our TV sets!)They have to make it appear to be a close race!

Originally Posted by Devil505

Good point!
The Republicans have no other tactic other than to throw mud at Obama....What the hell are they going to point to with pride from thier own side?? (The economy?...our foreign policy?)
They are a pathetic bunch that even true Republicans can't stand this year!

I'm a Republican and I truly like and admire John McCain but his lackluster position on the economy, energy and in particular the Iraq war caused me to cross party lines and place my support behind Obama.

Originally Posted by Bourne

I'm a Republican and I truly like and admire John McCain but his lackluster position on the economy, energy and in particular the Iraq war caused me to cross party lines and place my support behind Obama.

Good for you! (rare to find someone man enough to keep an open mind & have the guts to do what's right these days!)

I generally tend to vote Democratic but I switch party's depending on the times & candidate too. I have voted for Republican Senators (Brooke) & Governors (Weld) here in Mass.

As far as liking & admiring John McCain,.....I used too! The 2000 version of John McCain wouldn't even vote for the sad remnants of the 2008 version!

Originally Posted by Bourne

Typical ant-Obama much ado about nothing.

The mainstream media has "picked up on this" because there's nothing worth picking up.

Keep trying girls.

There is nothing worth picking up on except Obama's slowly eroding poll numbers as more an more people wake up from the Obama party with a bad hangover and a strange black guy in their bed.

When you wake up, let us know. Hopefully Obama left a few bucks on your nightstand.