Reply #39: whoa! Democrats are taking "dirty" money?

[wyldwolf]

Let's not forget the filthy cash Soros has doled out.

But I guess the question is, has this dirty money bought any influence?

Dean blasted for support of Enron insurance setup
By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Enron may be only a dying ember, but some Democratic presidential candidates are blowing on the coals.

Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, who regularly slams President Bush for his ties to former Enron Chairman Ken Lay, has recently been accused of hypocrisy by the other candidates for helping Enron in Vermont.

They have seized on reports that as governor, Dean pushed aggressively for tax breaks for corporations that set up subsidiaries whose sole purpose is to provide insurance for the parent company.

One company that took advantage was Enron, creating a spinoff in 1994 called Gulf Company Ltd., which has been taken over by the state of Vermont since Enron's bankruptcy.

Like his predecessors, Dean heavily recruited what are known as "insurance captives" -- which collect and invest premiums paid by the parent company and fill in gaps in coverage. Vermont has, by far, more of these businesses than any other state.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/special/enron/2316370

Wanna talk corporate contributions?

Three times in 2003, one Robert Crandall of Dallas, TX, contributed $2000. to the Dean campaign. Robert Crandall who, since the 1980 election cycle, has made political contributions as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Airlines and the Chairman Emeritus of AMR Corporation. The same Dallas-based Robert Crandall who serves on the Halliburton Board of Directors.

Dean amassed over $110,000 in donations in the first four months of his campaign from people with ties to the Fund for a Healthy America, a Vermont utility group.

David Gram of the Associated Press reported: “One donor who gave Dean's PAC the maximum amount allowed- $5,000 is Robert Young a top official at two utility companies that have had a lot of important business before state government during Dean's nearly 11 years in office. Young is chief executive at Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and chairman of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp.”

Young, it seems, plays both sides, too. Not only did he donate to Dean and and DFA, he also donated to Bush and the Vermont Republican Federal Elections Committee.

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Massive amounts of Deans financing for his gubernatorial campaigns came from the health care, insurance, banking, and pharmaceutical industries, with 65 percent of his campaign money coming from outside of Vermont.

One of Deans last acts as Governors was to authorize the sale of the Vermont Yankee plant to Entergy/Koch Industries. He refused to sell Vermont Yankee to another company just months earlier who offereed exactly the same deal. Entergy/Koch INdustries is owned by the two riches contributors to the Bush Campaign in the United States, the Koch Borthers who founded the same Cato Institute that honored Dean with his conservative rating, as well as being the financial backers of virtually every neo-con think tank in D.C.

After the sale, Among the largest and first contributors to Deans presidential campaigns were the executives of the energy companies in Vermont owned in one way or another by Entergy/Koch Industries.

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Some things just don't change. Last month, the Dean Administration caved in to the demands of the state's major utilities, agreeing to support the proposed sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear station to the out-of-state Entergy Corporation. Under the deal, ratepayers are to be saddled with another expensive power contract while shareholders take the cash proceeds and run.

And for those looking for political intrigue, Vermont now has its own version of the kind of insider dealings that resulted in Vice President Cheney's national energy plan. Vermont utility executives got complete access to the Dean Administration's Public Service Department to pressure a deal on Vermont Yankee that will give the utilities some $25 million for their corporate coffers, and lock ratepayers into high-priced energy costs for the next ten years. This sweetheart deal was struck just after certain utility officials made political contributions to the Governor's presidential bid. Meanwhile, environmental groups didn't get the time of day.

...The timing of the Dean Administration's change of heart is troubling. The Department's support for the Entergy sale was announced just after utility officials made major campaign contributions to the Governor's presidential campaign. Was there a connection? Like Vice President Cheney, the Governor will say no. But only the utilities were in talks with the Governor's energy department. Environmental groups were denied any access to these discussions. And the utilities got what they wanted. If it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020820040031/http://www.clf.org/hot/hydro_quebec_to_vermont_yankee.htm

Who is Entergy?

Entergy-Koch, LP (EKLP) is a limited partnership, formed in February 2001, between subsidiaries of Entergy Corporation and Koch Industries, Inc.

http://www.eklp.com/

Among the papers under lock and key, NEWSWEEK has learned, are the records of Dean’s meetings with utility executives about the controversial sale of a Vermont nuclear plant to Entergy Corp. Dean’s lawyers refused to release the papers to an environmental group last year, citing “executive privilege”—an echo of Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense of his energy-task-force meetings. “His sealing the records makes Cheney look accessible,” says one aide to a rival.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3660764

Dean Donors:

Time Warner
Microsoft Corp
IBM Corp
Morgan Stanley
Citigroup Inc
Goldman Sachs
Viacom Inc
News Corp (yeah - the FOX News folks!)