"Or as Simon Rosenberg, head of the
DLC's corporate-funded political action committee, the New Democrat Network, put it, "We're trying to raise money to help them lessen their reliance on traditional interest groups in the Democratic Party."
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20020805&s=borosage20020726"The New Democrat Network has grown quickly,
increasing its ability to fund New Democrat candidates for federal office, including those running in primary contests."http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=955&kaid=127&subid=171It would appear that the DLC doesn't want it
BOTH Ways.
The DLC wants it
THEIR way, and they will spend whatever it takes to BUY it.
The DLC is committed to an ECONOMIC Agenda, not a Democratic Party agenda.
Can you guess who funds the "Traditional Interest Groups in the Democratic Party" that the DLC wants to marginalize? Who is The DLC and their PAC working for?
While the DLC will not formally disclose its sources of contributions and dues, the full array of its corporate supporters is contained in the program from its annual fall dinner last October, a gala salute to Lieberman that was held at the National Building Museum in Washington. Five tiers of donors are evident: the Board of Advisers, the Policy Roundtable, the Executive Council, the Board of Trustees, and an ad hoc group called the Event Committee--and companies are placed in each tier depending on the size of their check. For $5,000, 180 companies, lobbying firms, and individuals found themselves on the DLC's board of advisers, including British Petroleum, Boeing, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Coca-Cola, Dell, Eli Lilly, Federal Express, Glaxo Wellcome, Intel, Motorola, U.S. Tobacco, Union Carbide, and Xerox, along with trade associations ranging from the American Association of Health Plans to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. For $10,000, another 85 corporations signed on as the DLC's policy roundtable, including AOL, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Citigroup, Dow, GE, IBM, Oracle, UBS PacifiCare, PaineWebber, Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn, and TRW.
And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC's executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively--meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.
The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included. Some donate enormous amounts of money, such as Bernard Schwartz, the chairman and CEO of Loral Space and Communications, who single-handedly finances the entire publication of Blueprint, the DLC's retooled monthly that replaced The New Democrat. "I sought them out, after talking to Michael Steinhardt," says Schwartz. "I like them because the DLC gives resonance to positions on issues that perhaps candidates cannot commit to."
(snip)
http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V12/7/drey... And that was written in 2001.
In all fairness, I
HAVE NOT been able to
directly connect the DCCC (or DSCC) to their Corporate Money Men. There does appear to be a connection. The Chairman of the DCCC is a former member of the DLC, and was
until recently prominently featured on their website as a leader and speaker promoting the Economic Issues of the DLC. It was
until recently no secret the Rham was a long time insider promoting the change to a more
Corporate Friendly Democratic Party.
I do know this about the DCCC:"The DCCC is supported by the contributions of individuals
and other groups from throughout the country who are committed to returning the People's House to the People of this country.
We are not an affiliate of the Democratic National Committee and do not receive regular funding from the DNC."http://www2.dccc.org/about/overview /
If the DCCC is NOT an affiliate of the DNC, nor does it receive funding from the DNC,
WHERE does it get the money that it is spending to influence local elections?NOTE: I was unable to provide the links to the DLC website that documents Rham Emmanuel's connections. The DLC Website has been redesigned, and links to Rham's Economic Philosophy and influence in the organization of the DLC are no longer available. I HAVE stored them, and will be able to provide the (now gone) connections after I find them.