TPM has a story up about a new Joe Trippi email about to be sent out.
"Guess who's really coming to lunch with Hillary"
If you want to know why we need change in Washington – and I mean real change, not just trading corporate Republican insiders with corporate Democratic insiders – then just look at Senator Clinton's schedule for today.
TPM
Just days after the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Hillary Clinton and several Democratic lawmakers will be getting uncomfortably cozy with moneyed interests who have stood to reap billions in post-9/11 homeland security spending, watchdog groups say.
abcnews
Clinton raking in the money. Just as Cheney let the big oil companies run energy policies, now we have the "security/industrial complex" buying "access."
The more things change, the ...
More after the fold.
9/11 was last week. Today,
the junior New York senator is scheduled to speak at a homeland security-themed, $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for her campaign in the downtown Washington, D.C. offices of a powerful legal firm.
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Clinton's fundraising audience is expected to include many of the government contractors and lobbyists whose fortunes have soared in the years since the attacks, which triggered a massive government reorganization and billions in new government spending.
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For the price of a ticket -- from a $1,000 personal donation to a $25,000 bundle –- attendees will get a special treat after the luncheon: an opportunity to participate in small, hour-long "breakout sessions" hosted by key Democratic lawmakers, many of whom chair important subcommittees on the Homeland Security committee.
abcnews
She is raking in even more cash from lobbyists. You know, the ones she said at Yearly Kos represent the American People. Right.
Joe Trippi, a senior advisor to the Edwards campaign, says this is exactly what is wrong with the system we have:
If you want to know why we need change in Washington – and I mean real change, not just trading corporate Republican insiders with corporate Democratic insiders – then just look at Senator Clinton's schedule for today. Today at noon, Hillary Clinton will be hosting a fundraiser in Washington, DC for a select group of lobbyists with an interest in homeland security.
Tickets for the Clinton fundraiser are $1,000 a ticket and $25,000 per bundler. And for that money you get more than a meal – you get to attend one-hour breakout sessions in four different areas of homeland security that will include House Committee Chairs and members of Congress who sit on the very committees that will be voting on homeland security legislation.
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Today's Clinton fundraising event is a "poster child" for what is wrong with Washington and what should never happen again with a candidate running for the highest office in the land.
That no one in the Clinton campaign – including the candidate – found anything wrong with holding this fundraiser is an indication of just how bad things have gotten in Washington – because there isn't an American outside of Washington who would not be sickened by it.
Just last month, John Edwards asked Senator Clinton to join him in taking the Democratic Party on the first step towards real reform – to become the first party to refuse and reject the money of Washington lobbyists.
TPM
"It's an outrage," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Washington, D.C. good-government group Project on Government Oversight.
abcnews
John Edwards said it well a few weeks ago. It's time to end the game.
The choice for our party could not be more clear. We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other.
The American people deserve to know that their presidency is not for sale, the Lincoln Bedroom is not for rent, and lobbyist money can no longer influence policy in the House or the Senate.
It's time to end the game. It's time to tell the big corporations and the lobbyists who have been running things for too long that their time is over. It's time to challenge politicians to put the American people's interests ahead of their own calculated political interests, to look the lobbyists in the eye and just say no.
End The Game
Isn't this why the netroots exists? To fight the corporate/DLC takeover of the Democratic Party?
TPM is a voice in the wilderness. First, we all should support TPM for all the good work they do. Give them your eyes at least once a day. They are truly crashing the gates.
TPM
Second, if you believe in change, answer Joe Trippi's call. While Hillary gets $1000 a plate from the lobbyists today, let's give some $25s and $50s to help John Edwards continue our fight.
As John said last month when he challenged all Democrats to reject lobbyist money, we cannot point a finger at anyone in either party for what they did yesterday—or even today—but we can today as a party stop the game, and say once and for all to all Washington lobbyists: your money is no good here anymore.
Help send that message by contributing any amount you can afford to give today:
Thank you for all you do.
Joe Trippi
Senior Advisor, John Edwards for President
September 18, 2007
Give Here:
Act Blue: Bloggers for Edwards
UPDATE: Just got the email. I didn't want to copy too much from TPM's copy of the email, but now I have the email itself:
Yet too many in office have fallen under the spell of campaign money at any cost—and do not see that when they defend the system, they are protecting those that have rigged the game that puts corporate profits ahead of the interests of working Americans.
To truly end that game, it's going to take more than a change of heart from other candidates: it's going to take thousands of committed Americans like you who are willing to take on the powerful interests dollar for dollar to elect a president like John Edwards—who has never taken a dime from any Washington lobbyist, and never will.
You may not have $1,000, but your $25, $50 or $100 contribution today—when combined with the contributions of thousands of others who are replying to this email right now—can send a powerful message to all of Washington that the days of trading special interest contributions for government access are numbered: