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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama Strongarms Fed Contractors |
| 2011-05-07 |
| how is this legal? President Obama has officially kicked off his 2012 re-election campaign, and don't Republicans know it. The president is expected any day now to sign an executive order that routs 70 years of efforts to get politics out of official federal business. It's the Chicago Way Under the order, all companies (and their officers) would be required to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts. Companies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether--which is the White House's real aim. Think of it as "not-pay to play." A RICO suit might be in order Whatever you call it, the order amounts to the White House brazenly directing the power of government against its political opponents--and at a time when the president claims to want cooperation on the budget and other issues. Senate Republicans from Mitch McConnell to Susan Collins are fuming, warning this is one political sucker punch too far, an unabashedly partisan move that will damage Senate work. Wow, even Susan Collins flinched? B*tch Minority Leader McConnell in an interview calls the order the "crassest" political move he's ever seen. "This is almost gangster politics, to shut down people who oppose them. . . . I assure you that this going to create problems for them in many ways--seen and unseen--if they go forward." That might not matter to a White House that's already monomaniacally focused on 2012. Democrats are obsessed with the money game, in particular rubbing out any GOP opportunities that came with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision to restore some corporate free-speech rights. Democrats last year tried to ram through the Disclose Act, designed to muzzle those new corporate rights, while allowing unions to continue spending at will. When the party failed to get the bill through even an overwhelmingly Democratic Senate, the White House stepped up. The draft order, which came out last month, would require federal bidders to supply a complete list of all political contributions made by the company, its political action committee, and its senior executives--going back two full years. (Richard Nixon would be impressed.) More astounding, the order requires the list to include donations made to third-party political groups--disclosure that is not currently required by law, and that is, as a result, surely unconstitutional. Time for the purse to snap shut. Defund this bastard's pets This will be litigated... |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #1 Time to tie O'bumble up in impeachment hearings where he can't campaign. There are enough valid charges that can be brought against him. Add a new one every week until he can't move because he's always having to talk to lawyers. This kind of crap is third-world. Pakistan would be proud. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2011-05-07 21:07 |