There have been a lot of people getting the vapors over the criticism of Clinton’s connections to Wall Street and lobbyists. People have risen to the defense of the way that Debbie Wasserman Schultz has run the DNC, despite evidence that she has so far failed to build out the party.
And once again, another story comes to light that the policy position to remove the influence of money in politics is nothing but lip service. Evidence that access is up for auction to the highest bidders, instead of the people who vote.
This week’s revelation… the Convention Host Committee is dominated by lobbyists and fundraisers who are hostile to Obama’s policies and ideals (as reported by The Intercept).
And below is a select list of members of that committee…
Committee Finance Chair is Daniel Hilferty:
CEO of Independence Blue Cross, a health insurance giant that covers nine million people. In December, Hilferty became board chairman of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of America, a trade group that lobbies for the insurance industry, and he serves on the board of directors of America’s Health Insurance Plan’s (AHIP), the insurance industry lobbying group that spearheaded the campaign against the Affordable Care Act.
Co-Chair Allyson Schartz:
...recently named head of a new advocacy group for the health insurance industry called Better Medicare Alliance. The group, according to the Center for Public Integrity, was set up by APCO, a lobbying firm for health insurance companies, to push to expand Medicare Advantage plans, the privately managed programs that were curtailed with the enactment of the ACA.
Special Advisor David Cohen:
Executive Vice President of Comcast, overseeing the company’s lobbying and regulatory strategy. In addition to being a “Hillblazer” — one of Hillary Clinton’s bundlers who has raised $100,000 or more — Cohen has been a particularly bitter and duplicitous leading opponent of the rules regarding net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic must be treated equally. And despite hosting fundraisers for Clinton at his home last summer, Cohen has spent heavily to help elect a Republican Congress, including recent donations to the NRCC; Sen. Toomey; Sen. Scott; Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; as well as $33,400 to the NRSC, a committee for helping elect GOP members to the Senate.
Chairman Governor Ed Rendell, became a lobbying gun for hire for some pretty questionable groups:
In 2011, as New York was debating regulations on fracking, Rendell wrote a pro-fracking opinion column in the New York Daily News, while failing to disclose that he was a paid consultant at a private equity firm that had investments in the industry.
That same year, Rendell started providing paid speeches on behalf of the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a fringe Iranian exile group that was considered a terrorist organization by the State Department at the time (it was delisted in 2012).
The former governor also joined the group Fix The Debt — an organization backed by private equity billionaire Pete Peterson that advocates for cutting Social Security benefits — co-chairing its activities alongside Judd Gregg.
All of this after the 2012 rule championed by President Obama to prevent such lobbyists from getting their claws into the party leadership was abolished by DWS. We want to protect the Obama legacy… that is one of the stated reasons why people got behind Clinton so quickly, but it is pretty clear that the party leaders have no interest in his legacy to reform the party. In fact they can’t wait to wash their hands of him and his people powered policies.