Suppose there is a big-time Hillary Clinton supporter. A very rich, very famous one who, despite the fact that his last movie was a bomb, remains a huge magnet for the richest of the rich in Hollywood.
How does he try to reconcile raising untold millions for Hillary Clinton and Democrats – most recently by hosting an event at his house costing up to $353,000 per couple – with Ms. Clinton’s campaign message, which essentially puts the wood to exactly the people he is raising money from?
Well, if you are George Clooney, this – in his own words – is the answer:
“The overwhelming amount of money that we’re raising, and it is a lot, but the overwhelming amount of the money that we’re raising is not going to Hillary to run for president, it’s going to the down-ticket.
“It’s going to the congressmen and senators to try to take back Congress. And the reason that’s important (is) … we need to take the Senate back because we need to confirm the Supreme Court justice, because that fifth vote on the Supreme Court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again. And that’s why I’m doing it.”
In other words, “Sure Hillary is getting plenty of do-re-mi out of this, but most of it is going to other Democrats…
…so the fact that I am raising millions upon millions of dollars from the richest of the rich – just like (gasp!!!) Republicans do – doesn’t count. Because the enormous amount of influence these people buy with their money is all on behalf of you little people. Honest (wink, wink).”
Oh, but wait: Mr. Clooney also says that the real reason he takes all this mega-money from mega-fatcats (who don’t want a thing in return, we’re sure) is that if Hillary Clinton is President she will appoint sympathetic Supreme Court justices, so that…
“The Supreme Court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again. And that’s why I’m doing it.”
See, until the Citizens United case, money contributed by rich people was not a factor in politics, so if/when it is overturned, money things will go back to the no-money-needed status they used to be, and George Clooney will “…never have to do a fundraiser again”.
If you believe that overturning Citizens United will remove money from politics – that George Clooney’s rich pals will no longer have any special interests which cause them to contribute huge sums of money – I have a real hot stock opportunity for you: Whitewater, in Arkansas.
I wonder how much mainstream media coverage this ridiculous nonsense would have generated if one of the Koch Brothers, or Sheldon Adelson, were pumping it out on behalf of a Republican candidate.
My guess? Many multiples of what you will see when it is George Clooney-tunes pumping it out on behalf of media favorite Queen Hillary.
If they won’t go after Ms. Clinton more than perfunctorily to get transcripts of her speeches to a who’s who of Wall Street (NOT just Goldman Sachs), it’s an excellent bet they won’t put the wood to her over fundraisers like this one.
