Josh marshall has the story.
This morning, Mark Halperin floated an intriguing question: Are the Clintons financing Hillary's campaign with their own money?
Now the Clinton campaign has finally answered: Yes, they are. Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson sends over the following:
Late last month Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million.
This is huge news.
Before the netroots, it was almost impossible to believe a people-powered campaign - based on the Howard Dean model, could overpower the financial corporate wealth that tended to dominate campaigns.
Now that may be changing, with the right candidate, momentum, and us.
follow after the jump
Money is still the key to political victories here - because of the need for advertising, staff, etc. etc.
When the pleas were made in secret, it was easy for corporate donors to lock up a candidate and make them beholden to their paychecks.
The beauty of this campaign is that the fundraising is out in the open -- to some extent -- and that we can overpower the democratic fat cats not just with our votes, but with out hard earned dollars.
Congrats to everyone who has donated. Lets keep it up. Donate more.
Update: sorry, fixed both links.
Update 2: Some of the commenters have raised the question of where the money comes from. I think this is a legitimate, but delicate, question. First, a national political figure taking out a loan is not unheard of, and is not bad.
What is bad is the perception that anyone in office for a period of time ends up rich. There is really only one way to get rich in politics, and that is to accept favors from "friends", such as George Bush did from his father's friends.
I think the issue this raises is the Clinton's relationship with their "friends" -- and that is a legitimate subject for debate.
Update 3: Reading the comments, I want to say "Let's be careful." Piling on and trashing Hillary for taking out a loan could create a negative backlash. I think the proper questions are 1) is her and Bill's net worth sufficient for this type of self financing. Romney's net worth is $250 million, give or take. Do the Clinton's have that kind of money? 2) Will the self-financing help win more contributors. It hasn't done so well for Romney. 3) From an Obama partisan point of view, I think the best linkage is the comparison this brings up with Romney - the other major self-funder in this cycle. It suggests a candidate whose ambition outstrips their popularity.