Monday, September 3, 2012

Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers...

One big happy group of political opportunistic power players.

Craig Unger explains:
On April 10, Foster Friess, the re­­tired investor who had backed Rick Santorum, announced he was supporting Romney. When asked by Politico if he’d be donating to {Karl Rove's] American Crossroads, Friess seemed bewildered by the array of new super-pacs. “I’m not sure if I have already,” he replied. “I know that I have contributed to some other groups, but I can’t remember which ones. There are so many of them. They’re all over the place.”

Next came Sheldon Adelson, the seventh-richest man in America with a $24.9 billion fortune, who, along with his family, according to the Las Vegas Sun, had given $21.5 million to a super-pac backing Gingrich. As recently as March, Adelson had expressed reservations about Romney. “He’s not the bold decision-maker like Newt Gingrich is. Every time I talk to him, he says, ‘Well, let me think about it,’ ” Adelson told JewishJournal.com.

In April, the Sun reported, Adelson was openly expressing “gushing admiration for Karl Rove.” “I’m going to give one more small donation—you might not think it’s that small—to a SuperPAC,” he said. On June 13, that “small” donation was announced: $10 million to Restore Our Future. “He is going to be the Republican Party’s 800-pound gorilla in defeating Barack Obama,” one of Adelson’s friends told CNN.

But the big questions still remained: What about David and Charles Koch, the multi-billionaire brothers responsible for funding much of the Tea Party movement? Would they align with Rove? The Kochs were so powerful that, far from being part of his machine, they had, at times, seemed to be rivals, battling him for the heart of the party. But by early spring, according to Politico, Koch operative Marc Short had begun attending the Weaver Terrace group’s gatherings [at Rove's house]... 
Rival operatives in the party who loathe him nonetheless evince a grudging respect. “He’s playing a very long game,” says Roger Stone. “Even if Romney loses, that’s good for Karl, because he will still be in control. And there’s always Jeb Bush in 2016.”

With the Koch brothers and Adelson falling into rank, Rove had consolidated the warring factions within the party. He is in command, having built his shadow R.N.C. into an entity over which he has complete control.
 Read the full fascinating article, here.

5 comments:

  1. So much for our democratic system. I don't support the leftwing solution to these Superpacs which is to just ban them, but I understand their complaint about it. Adelson, the Kochs, Rove are just using the Superpac contribution to manipulate elections and buy politicians like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. It is very corrupt, but it's perfectly legal. I don't know what to do about it, if anything, but it is another reason for the common man to loathe government.

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    1. The problem are not the PACs but the power and privilege that the politicians feel themselves they own and are ready to sell to the highest bidders. Until the legislative and regulatory power is removed from their corrupted position of power then ANY other measures will fail.

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  2. It is interesting to see and learn of the amount of money that billionaires needed to defeat Ron Paul. Yet MSM commentators continue calling it a "fringe movement."

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    1. That's because they're paid to call it a "fringe movement".

      Watching the interview shows with Ron Paul over the year he was running it was easy to see that the questions were scripted. "You know you can't win, who will you be endorsing?"

      What impressed me was the one time they finally pissed him off, during the second debate I think, when he just stopped and looked at the questioner as if to say, "They paid you to say THAT?"

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  3. It is really odd for me to read these things about the Kochs, especially on sites that seem to agree with my beliefs, because without Bill Koch my home town would not exist.

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