Money Talks Even Louder

Previously, I have linked to a study that showed the credit card industry's campaign contributions to Democrats who support the bankruptcy bill. The money trail winds on. Commenting on the motivations behind a letter written by Democrats in the House urging that the bill be rammed through as fast as possible, David Sirota is quoted:

“And a look at campaign finance records shows why — the House Democrats who signed the letter pocketed a combined $750,000 in their two-year campaigns for Congress in 2004. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of the industry giving these members $1,000 every single day of the last two years,” Sirota wrote, relying on figures from opensecrets.org.

It's also interesting to note the priorities of the Democratic party. Sirota's boss at the CAP, John Podesta, was hauled before the New Democrat Coalition to answer for Sirota's memo.

Nearly every lawmaker who arrived at Thursday’s meeting with Podesta, former President Clinton’s last chief of staff, voiced concern about the Sirota broadside, calling it overtly personal and unhelpful to the two organizations’ shared goal of helping the Democratic Party grow.

Note that no one actually cared that Sirota was making a point. The concern was that airing such dirty laundry would make centrist Democrats look bad. Sirota wasn't calling out the corruption of those centrist Democrats, he was "attacking centrist Democrats for their pro-business stances."