In a recent post my tip jar included: 'We've got the 1% worried." Now we have an indication of just how worried they are. The K Street firm Clark Lytle Geduldig Cranford (with close ties to House Speaker Boehner) proposed a $850,000 smear campaign against the Occupy Wall Street Movement to the American Bankers Association fronting for the deepest pockets on Wall Street, those of the Big Banks.
Hat tip to shantysue for her post: Updated Lobbying Firm Turkey Day Memo Warns of OWS "altering the political ground for years to come"
From MSNBC:
Exclusive: Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street (VIDEO)
by Jonathan Larsen and Ken Olshansky
CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.
From the Washington Post:
How Wall Street really views the protesters
By Greg Sargent
The memo was authored by lobbyists at the firm Clark Lytle Geduldig Cranford — and there are two key takeaways. The first is that some allies of Wall Street firms see Occupy Wall Street as a potential long term political threat. The second is that they see the Democratic strategy of embracing the populist message of the protests as something that could work, rather than something that is an automatic negative for Dems, as conservatives keep proclaiming is the case.
From the memo:
If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullsye.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the Democratic Party or even President Obama’s reelection team would campaign against Wall Street in this cycle. However the bigger concern should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street comapnies — and might start running against them too.
That last possibility of some in the G.O.P. taking on Wall Street boggles my imagination and would represent a complete victory for O.W.S.
The American Bankers Association issued a statement that they had rejected the proposal. I have to wonder if they rejected the smear campaign against Occupy Wall Street because they saw what a good job the national and local corporate media was already doing of vilifying O.W.S. and the protesters?
Why do you think the A.B.A. rejected bankrolling a smear campaign against O.W.S.??