GOODY TWO SHOES: “Stealing Our Democracy?” Obama’s Been There, Done That.
President Barack Hussein Obama and members of his administration are accusing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for of using donations from shadowy foreign sources to influence the outcome of the mid-term elections, The Washington Post reports:
President Obama, speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, said "the American people deserve to know who is trying to sway their elections" and raised the possibility that foreigners could be funding his opponents.
"You don't know," Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. "It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don't know because they don't have to disclose."
The remarks are part of a volley of recent attacks by Obama and other Democrats on alleged foreign influence within the Republican caucus, whether through support for outsourcing jobs by major U.S. corporations or through overseas money making its way into the coffers of GOP-leaning interest groups. …
David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that secret political donations to the chamber and other groups pose "a threat to our democracy." …
"If the chamber opens up its books and says, 'Here's where our political money's coming from,' then we'll know," Axelrod said. "But until they do that, all we have is their assertion." …
The Democratic National Committee began airing ads over the weekend attacking the chamber as "shills for big business" and claiming: "It appears they've even taken foreign money to spend on our elections. ... Tell the Bush crowd and the Chamber of Commerce: Stop stealing our democracy," the ad says.
The ad calls Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, and Ed Gillespie, the former president’s Counselor “Bush cronies” and, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “shills for big business” who are “stealing our democracy” who are “spending millions of dollars from secret donors to elect Republicans who will do their bidding in Congress.”
The two didn’t take the accusations of having “taken secret foreign money to influence our elections” lying down. On “Face the Nation” Gillespie warned, “Don't accuse those who are playing by the rules of somehow doing something that is unethical or illegal.” For his part, on “Fox News Sunday” Rove asserted that “They have not a shred of credible evidence to back up those baseless lies.”
"How dare the president do this," sputtered Rove. How indeed, particularly in light of Obama having taken untraceable campaign donations in 2008. Don’t recall Axelrod getting all exercised over it back then, either. Come to think of it, he seems strangely incurious about where all the union money poured into Dem candidate coffers comes from.
Oh, and as far as “stealing” our democracy, millions of voters think Obama stole the nomination from Hillary Clinton (fourth item and seventh item).
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