Darling of Special Interests
Mr. Emanuel has very close ties to the Wall Street firms and housing entities at the heart of the current financial crisis.
On the Freddie Mac Board of Directors
Mr. Emanuel is the top congressional recipient of Wall Street campaign contributions, and he served on the baord of Freddie Mac.
Wall Street Pipeline
Through Sept. 30, 2008, Emanuel received $600,500 for this last election in contributions from the securities and investment industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That is more than ANY other member of Congress. The hedge fund industry contributed $96,000 to Emanuel, more than any of his House colleagues, and more than the toop 11 GOP recipients of the hedge fund industry combined. In fact, the entire finance/insurance/real estate sector gave Emanuel more than $1million, accounting for 37% of his funds raised. I thought Obama was against special interests and manipulating politics through contributions (ha ha). Emanuel received so much because of his service on the House Ways and Means Committee. However, why is he receiving so much more than other committee Democrats with more seniority, including chair Charlie Rangel? Interesting, don't you think?
Emanuel's best source was Swiss Bank UBS, whose employees, PAC, and execs had given 63,700 to Rahm as of 9/30/08. UBS benefitted from the bailout by the support of AIG, which ensured UBS's subprime mortgage backed securities. UBS has also been bailed out by the Swiss government. UBS executive Raoul Wells, who gave to Emanuel, has been indicted for illegally helping Americans shelter wealth from the IRS.
Bailout Firms Love Rahm
Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Bank of America, all ranked Emanuel in the top four House recipients of funds. He also is among the leading recipients of Fannie and Freddie. Of course, getting paid by Freddie Mac is nothing new, as Emanuel was paid 231,655 in 01 and 31,060 in 02 in director fees.
Daley/Clinton Scum Residue
Federal prosecutors maintain that the Daley administration employed a team of patronage workers, paid by Chicago taxpayers, to campaign for Emanuel in his 2002 election. The Chicago Tribune reported in 06 that two ex city officials, have admitted in guilty pleas that they ran political groups whose members got city jobs and promotions after campaigning for Daey and candidates supported by him, including Rahm Emanuel.
And this is the guy who Mr. Change has selected to run the White House and control access to the President? Welcome to Chicago style graft and patronage, writ large on a national scale. This is not change, this is falling back to the Clinton era mafioso plan of support me or be cut off; of give or get no access.
