Recently, Hillary and many of her surrogates have been attacking that Obama's Hopefund leadership PAC has been collaborating with Obama's Presidential campaign to bribe people into endorsing Obama. They also accuse Obama and his supporters denial that there is any such program as being disingenuous. They even go so far as to claim it is illegal, despite the fact that other campaign finance officers refute them, the FEC has not seen fit to object to it.
No one has been saying that Obama doesn't have a Leadership PAC. No one is saying that he doesn't use it to assist Democrats get elected. Where the disagreement begins is whether he is doing it specifically to bribe other politicians into endorsing Obama over Hillary.
They often present someone's opinion, sometimes their own, sometimes it is from someone that endorses Hillary, as if it were a fact. Apparently they feel that Daily Kos is nothing more than a blog that attempts to get Democratic Party office holders and candidates for various positions to endorse its creator, Markos, and its other FP bloggers. Since the mission of the blog is to strengthen the Democratic Party by campaigning for, fundraising for and donating to those Democratic Party office holders and candidates for various offices. By the logic you used above, there can be no other reason.
That might be true for some cynical members and candidates of the Democratic Party and DKos. However, just because it is true for some, does not mean that it is true for the blog itself. Obama has a history of being a strong supporters and campaigner for the Democratic Party. He did this in Illinois and throughout the nation for much of his adult life.
To now cast aspersions upon Obama for his relentless drives to build the Democratic majority, sustain it and foster further growth as just a cynical ploy to become the Democratic nominee is insulting. In 2006, while Hillary was hoarding her the cash raised for her re-election campaign for the Senate against an extremely weak Republican. Obama was emptying his coffers and, wearing through multiple shoes, walking the beat to get Democrats elected all over the country.
Hillary decided it was more important to horde the cash to fund her future Presidential aspirations than it was to secure more seats in Washington, DC for Democrats. Her goal, as her campaign tried to implement, was to scare all other Democrats from even trying by starting off with more money than any of the Republicans have been able to raise so far. Only Obama was able to out raise her and would have more money raised and on hand than Hillary, if she hadn't horded that money.
You may think that shows Hillary's strategy worked. I think it is damning evidence that Hillary cares more about her aspirations of being President than she cares about the Democratic Party and passing progressive legislation. It shows that even though she has pulled every favor in from her entire time in Washington DC. The only way she was able to out raise Obama was to shaft the Democratic Party, which she did with no apology or remorse.
Then when her aspirations were endangered, she again decided to chose a route that might weaken not just Obama but one that endangers many Democrats in tight and important races other than just the Presidential race. Obama could have just rolled his PAC into his Presidential race like Hillary did. Instead he used the funds still in it, though he hasn't fund raised for it since entering the race, to assist Democratic Candidates in close races.
Ignoring the fact that there is a vast difference between leadership PACs that nearly all of the Washington DC office holders have and corporate lobbying PACs, Hillary tried to conflate the two as being one in the same. She did it to continue her defense of corporate lobbies and the obscene money they poor into her and other DLC candidates. She did it in a purely Rovian attack intended to taint Obama.
It didn't matter to Hillary that such and attack would also spill over to those close races. That other close races might not get the needed extra boosts. Once again she put her own aspirations above the health of the Democratic Party.
She did so, on the spurious and to date unsubstantiated by anything other than her and her supporters opinions that Obama, who has been doing the same thing he has been doing ever since he exploded onto the national scene, was bribing fellow Democrats to endorse him. Considering Hillary's past, it seems to be a very revealing glimpse into how and why she does the bare minimum of Party Building that she does.
Other than to propagate the sham that she actually cares about getting other Democrats elected. Hillary's purpose of assisting other Democrats is simply mercenary quid pro quo strong arming of those Democrats to support and endorse Hillary. Vilsak's price was apparently $400,000. Though considering the veiled threats whispered around the Democratic Party that if you don't support and endorse Hillary, you won't be welcomed by her Administration. I don't think it was just the money for Vilsak.
UPDATE: List of Candidates for U.S. House and Senate that Hopefund donated to.
Artur G. Davis House Alabama
Gabrielle Giffords House Arizona
Jim Costa House California
Barbara Lee House California
Dennis Cardoza House California
Joe Baca House California
Hilda Solis House California
John Salazar House Colorado
Mark E. Udall Senate Colorado
Ron Klein House Florida
David Scott House Georgia
Sanford D Bishop, Jr. House Georgia
Bobby Lee Rush House Illinois
Luis V Gutierrez House Illinois
Melissa Bean House Illinois
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. House Illinois
Danny K Davis House Illinois
Joe Donnelly House Indiana
Baron Hill House Indiana
Brad Ellsworth House Indiana
Julia Carson House Indiana
Bruce L. Braley House Iowa
David Loebsack House Iowa
Leonard Boswell House Iowa
Nancy Boyda House Kansas
John Yarmouth House Kentucky
Mary Landrieu Senate Louisiana
Tom Allen Senate Maine
Elijah E. Cummings House Maryland
Nicki Tsongas House Massachusetts
John Conyers, Jr. House Michigan
Carl Levin Senate Michigan
Tim Walz House Minnesota
Keith Ellison House Minnesota
Bennie G. Thompson House Mississippi
William Lacy Clay, Jr. House Missouri
Max Baucus Senate Montana
Robert James Daskas House Nevada
Paul Hodes House New Hampshire
Carol Shea-Porter House New Hampshire
Jeanne Shaheen Senate New Hampshire
Frank Lautenberg Senate New Jersey
Mary Jo Kilroy House Ohio
Zachary T. Space House Ohio
Andrew Rice Senate Oklahoma
Patrick Murphy House Pennsylvania
Chaka Fattah House Pennsylvania
Chris Carney House Pennsylvania
Jason Altmire House Pennsylvania
Tim Johnson Senate South Dakota
Chet Edwards House Texas
Al Green House Texas
Nick Lampson House Texas
Robert C. Scott House Virginia
Mark Warner Senate Virginia
Eleanor Holmes Norton House Washington DC
Steven Kagen House Wisconsin
Gwendolynne Moore House Wisconsin
Update 2:Corrected Tsongas. Originally had listed as a Senate campaign. She is actually running for a House seat.