Obama liked PAC money before he didn't like it

[wyldwolf]

Turns out, some Obama PAC money came from PACs.

Before he ostentatiously stopped taking money from political action committees to run for president, Sen. Barack Obama quietly took money from political action committees.

As a presidential candidate, Obama claims to be an outsider eager to shake up the Washington establishment by refusing to accept donations from political action committees and Washington lobbyists. This year, they're the bad guys.

But this wasn’t always the case.

Back in 2005 and 2006, Obama raised $123,283 from other political action committees and put them into a political action committee of his own. He called it Hopefund.

Hopefund is what is known as a “leadership PAC,” a frequent target of campaign watchdogs because it can raise money in much larger bundles than individual candidates. The Candidate of Hope from Illinois followed the example set by Senate and House members who establish such accounts to raise money and then spread it around to other politicians in the hopes of gaining new best friends. Legally, such PACs are supposed to operate independently and cannot coordinate with any campaigns of their owner.

Now that Obama is running for president, he's handing out the bulk of Hopefund money to politicians and groups who happen to be in early presidential voting states, as the Washington Post's John Solomon noted the other day. The pace of giving has increased in recent months and this has led to some remarkable coincidences.

New Hampshire state Sen. Jacalyn Cilley, for instance, received $1,000 from Obama's PAC last summer. Six days later she happened to endorse the same Obama for president. "I endorsed him because I believe in him and his policies," she said.

Likewise, Obama's PAC recently felt moved to donate $9,000 to Rep. Paul Hodes, who happens to have been the first member of Congress from New Hampshire to endorse Obama early this year.

With a straight face Obama spokesmen deny there's any connection between his presidential campaign and the PAC donations.

Altogether, Obama collected $4.4 million for Hopefund. The donations came from some of his biggest backers including the Illinois energy firm Exelon and the Illinois Pork Producers.

According to Federal Election Commission records, other significant Obama PAC donations in the last two years came from AT&T, Lockheed Martin, Comcast, and Walt Disney. There was even money from currently evil law firms that have major lobbying practices in Washington including Brownstein Hyatt and DLA Piper.

But that was then.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/obama_liked_pac_money_before_h.html

[rinsd]

1. "Obama's PAC recently felt moved to donate $9,000 to Rep. Paul Hodes"

Welcome to the party pal

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3423425

[cuke]

4. Obama's New Politics looks a lot like the Old Politics he claims to dislike

[rinsd]

8. Obama deserves credit for doing a great deal on campaign finance reform and transparency.

However he is not entitled to claim his feces lacks odor.

[cuke]

19. True, but that doesn't make him the 2nd coming of Joshua

on the issue as he has implied

[durrrty libby]

2. K

[Rock_Garden]

3. K2.

[HughMoran]

5. K3?

:P

[asdjrocky]

6. PAC money...

Wow, that's why I support neither of them.

[asdjrocky]

7. PAC money...

Wow, that's why I support neither of them.

[Tellurian]

9. An abbreviated encapsulation of Obama's generosity to Primary State politicos

bloged by Vinny:

"Wow this is even more damaging then I originally thought. Wow this guy has no shame. This is from TheHill.com:
"In June, Obama gave $5,000 contributions from his PAC, Hopefund, to every Democratic member of Congress from Iowa and New Hampshire. On June 15, he gave to Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire, and Reps. Bruce Braley, David Loebsack and Leonard Boswell of Iowa. At the end of the month, he wrote a $5,000 check to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Obama’s wooing paid off last month. On July 26, Hodes became the first lawmaker from Iowa or New Hampshire to make an endorsement in the Democratic primary, throwing his support to Obama." and here is the other damaging part to Obama: "Fundraising records of other candidates’ PACs show no contributions in the past six months to government officials from important primary states."

Looks like after all Obama is the most corrupt of all the Dems running for President. Lets hear the spin on why a guy trying to win in IA and NH gives every member of COngress in only those 2 states money. Obama is a fraud.

And I guess you can always find the humor in hypocrisy, if you look hard enough:

another blogger says:

"Hey xxx, it's not a red herring, that is exactly the point. He had no problem with PAC money until he decided he wanted to be politically pure. He was against Iraq until he got to the Senate & voted funding,funding funding. He was for mandated health coverage before he was against mandated health coverage,etc.,etc.

He probably was against breast feeding until the media decided to breast feed him"

[K Gardner]

10. Do HRC and Obama people know they're just cancelling each other out..

with the constant barrage of attacks, counterattacks, pseudoattacks, sniping, griping, whining, etc, etc, etc?

[Clintonista2]

11. Candidate of change? "change" refers to the cash thats left over after he's purchased endorsements?

[sandnsea]

12. Him and every single solitary politician

Aren't you embarrassed posting such an obvious distortion?

[Tellurian]

13. If you could provide a link to "every single solitary politician"

who has donated their PAC money to Primary State Congressional Members, that would be awesome!

[cuke]

14. Notice how no Obama supporters are defending Obama

The best they can do is sandnsea's "They all do it too"

[wyldwolf]

16. ...or post #15... Hillary does is too!!!

[cuke]

18. It's all they have

[AtomicKitten]

15. Hey, who doesn't like PAC money?

Ask Hillary.

[William769]

17. He also liked gay people before he didn't. he also liked baby boomer's before he didn't. NT

[cuke]

20. But he's always loved Jesus

[cuke]

21. Obama was for PACs before he was against them

[cuke]

22. Kick for the Obama supporters who are avoiding this thread

because they can't defend Obama