The Men Who Own The GOP (incredibly important article)

[WilliamPitt]

Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They’re running for the Republican nomination for president.

I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are running. They are – but only because the people listed in the first paragraph have given them huge sums of money to do so. In a sense, Santorum, Gingrich, Paul and Romney are the fronts. Dore et al. are the real investors.

According to January’s Federal Election Commission report, William Dore and Foster Friess supplied more than three-fourths of the $2.1 million raked in by Rick Santorum’s super PAC in January. Dore, president of the Dore Energy Corp. in Lake Charles, La., gave $1 million; Freiss, a fund manager based in Jackson Hole, Wyo., gave $669,000 (he had given the Santorum super PAC $331,000 last year, bringing Freiss’ total to $1 million).

Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, provided $10 million of the $11 million that went into Gingrich’s super PAC in January. Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Texas billionaire Harold Simmons donated $500,000. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, provided $1.7 million of the $2.4 million raised by Ron Paul’s super PAC in January.

The rest: http://www.salon.com/2012/02/21/the_men_who_own_the_gop/

[geckosfeet]

1. Well what do you know. Big corpo money running the election show.

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/21/the_men_who_own_the_gop/
Bottom line: Whoever emerges as the GOP standard-bearer will be deeply indebted to a handful of people, each of whom will expect a good return on their investment.

Before 2010, federal campaign law and Federal Election Commission regulations limited to $5,000 per year the amount an individual could give to a PAC making independent expenditures in federal elections. This individual contribution limit was declared unconstitutional by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in a case based on the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision at the start of 2010, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission.

Now, the limits are gone. And this comes precisely at a time when an almost unprecedented share of the nation’s income and wealth is accumulating at the top.

Never before in the history of our Republic have so few spent so much to influence the votes of so many.

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/21/the_men_who_own_the_gop/

Who could have predicted this?

[Warpy]

2. Shining light on the cockroaches is extremely important

For too many years they've been allowed to scuttle around in the dark corners, infecting everything they touch.

If enough of them get burned by the bright light of public scrutiny, maybe they'll realize politics is a dangerous game for anyone who wants to remain out of sight and forgo it for other wars by proxy.

[DirkGently]

3. We're already seeing campaign "sponsors" interviewed on their positions.

It's just the "money over people" vision of democracy Republicans have been after. Whoever's got the most money, and is willing to spend it to get their way, wins.

I do think it's biting them in ways they didn't expect though. It was supposed to be the corporate good old boy network running things, not wacky Las Vegas moguls leaping in and mucking things around.

Taken to its logical conclusion, at some point we'll just cut out the middle men, and porn kings and slot-machine magnates can just debate among themselves as to whether it's more important to drill for oil in the Grand Canyon or execute people late on their credit card payments.

They can debate on television while their avatar "candidates" wait quietly in the lobby.

[FredStembottom]

7. LOL. (and shudders)

That's what the Repubs. are after. Institutionalized corruption. Nothing less.

[spanone]

4. k&r...

[myrna minx]

5. K&R n/t

[just1voice]

6. The SCOTUS allowed them to own all of us

There's always going to be some manipulative aholes trying to corrupt American society, it's just a question of whether they are allowed to do it or not.

[chervilant]

9. Yeah, well,

the SCOTUS needs to be purged of all its criminals, too.

[malaise]

8. K & R

Very important

[wiggs]

10. Didn't the two Koch brothers, between the two of them, pledge 60 million to

defeat Obama? And IIRC the others in the recent billionaires' meeting pledged 40 million more.

Rove's two groups are also collecting huge amounts from big donors.

[wiggs]

11. Someone should ask Justice Alito why he was shaking his head

and mouthing 'no...it doesn't' during an Obama SOTU speech when Obama described dire consequences of the Citizens United ruling.

[Ian62]

12. If u want to know who is donating to who - go here :-

http://www.opensecrets.org/

You didn't really go into Mittens and he has by far the largest donations of GOP candidates - over $30m per qtr.

List of largest Mitten's donors to his SuperPAC Restore OUr Future (sic)
http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/contrib.php?cmte=C00490045&cycle=2012

Eli Publishing and F8 LLC are front companies for Nu Skin a Utah MLM

[Ian62]

14. Top 6 donors to Romney campaign are all big banks

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?id=N00000286

Goldman Sachs tops the list - surprise surprise

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. So when we use PayPal, we are supporting Republicans, eh?

[bluedigger]

15. No, just Ron Paul.

[BleedBlueUSA]

16. Win in November MESS WITH THEIR PRIMARY get "Ron Paul" in for an Obama victory.

If we want to prevent a Republican President we should help the easiest opponent for Obama become their nominee. A few years ago Rush Limbaugh messed with the Democrat Primary by telling Republicans to vote as Democrats in the Primary. How about returning the deed? Everybody should show up on election day to vote in "Ron Paul" for Republican nominee. He hasn't won a single state yet and it should be an easy victory in November. Check your states primary date http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/

[MichiganVote]

17. Oh God the horror..how will they ever be able to pay their taxes. Sobbing...