Most of us are familiar with the campaign tactic Obama adopted for his presidenitial run. He has made it a central theme as to counter his lack of experience. His declaration that he doesn't accept money from "registered" Lobbyists or PACS. Trying to infer being in Washington for only a couple years means he hasn't been tainted by what he views as a natural occurence if you're in DC for a longer period of time. And apparently his other view, if you take money from Lobbyists, you will automatically have to curry your vote to their favor. Thankfully all of our elected officials don't operate that way.
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama often boasts he is "the only candidate who isn't taking a dime from Washington lobbyists," yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show.
And of course, Obama did not practice this principle in of his other campaigns, the ones he ran for the state of Illinois, or the current seat he holds as a US Senator. But there does seem to be some continuity here folks. He IS accepting money from Lobbyists individually AND, he has 38 Lobbyists raising a pledged $3.5 million EACH for his current Presidential Campaign.
Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator's presidential race. Employees of their firms have given Obama's campaign $2.26 million, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance data shows.
Thirty-one of the 38 are law firm partners, who typically receive a share of their firm's lobbying fees. At least six of them have some managerial authority over lobbyists.
Obama recently decided to stretch the truth a bit more when he dived in to his latest campaign rhetoric that he "doesn't accept money from Oil companies". Trying to infer, again, that must mean his vote can't be swayed over to those Interests.
But in reality,
It's accurate that Obama doesn't take money from oil companies; neither do his opponents, because corporate contributions are illegal. But Obama, like Clinton and John McCain, has accepted donations from oil and gas company employees — $222,309 in Obama's case from donors from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and others, according to campaign-finance data. Two oil company CEOs have pledged to raise at least $50,000 each as part of Obama's fundraising team.
And as the Director of Campaign Finance Institute Michael Malbin said, "It makes no difference whether the person is a registered lobbyist or the partner of a registered lobbyist, if the person is raising money to get access or curry favor"
Maybe that is what Obama is trying to tell us, that if he takes money from any of these special intrests, he cannot resist the need to vote for their interests over the interests of the people.
Thankfully Hillary Clinton knows the people's interests come first. And regardless that she can accept contributions from employees who work in a particular trade, her vote doesn't get bought.
Energy Policy Act of 2005NAYs ---26
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dodd (D-CT)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA) Gregg (R-NH)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ) Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sununu (R-NH)
Wyden (D-OR)
Bankruptcy Amendment
To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent.
YEAs ---24Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dayton (D-MN) Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (D-CT)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
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