White House Calls Republican Secret Campaign Donations Threat to Democracy

[bigtree]

Oct 10, 2010 11:57 AM ET

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said secret donations to outside political groups are “a threat to our democracy,” singling out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for criticism less than a month before elections that will determine control of Congress.

“If the Chamber opens up its books and says ‘here’s where our political money’s coming from,’” Axelrod said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program, “then we’ll know. But until they do that, all we have is their assertion.”

____ “Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove run one of them -- tens of millions of dollars from undisclosed donors, under benign names like the American Crossroads fund,” Axelrod said. “Why not simply disclose where this money is coming from?”

Pres. Obama chided Republican-leaning groups on Oct. 7, without mentioning the Chamber, at a campaign rally for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in Bowie, Maryland, saying their advertising is funded by contributors whose identity isn’t known.

“Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,” Obama said. “So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections, and they won’t tell you where the money for their ads comes from.”


read: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-10/axelrod-singles-out-chamber-calling-secret-donations-threat-to-democracy.html

[efhmc]

1. repukes have proven time and again that they are against

democracy. It impedes their desire for power and money.

[old mark]

2. I want to see a real investigation into this, especially the COC money

and other PAC's. I believe there is a lot of Chinese and other foreign money supporting the "Conservative" GOP...If the Democrats were doing this - the few times Clinton entertained foreign government representatives - the GOP went crazy, and accused us of selling America.

Who is selling America now?

mark

[Historic NY]

3. Its true unencumbered money being spent by the likes of operatives with shady pasts...

if they won't account for where it came from how can they claim its okay. I remember the Gore dust-up the Pukes cause over Korean money..Rove & Gillespie upset......f--k'em.