** Anyone have information on the relationship this time around? Will Raytheon have a presence again at the Dem convention? One thing for sure, after reading this, I'm sure glad Lieberman is out of the race. No wonder he is such a hawk.
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http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/updates/bluedogs.htm Aug.11 2000
BLUE DOGS, PORK AND "MORALITY":
The Arms Industry's Buyout of the Democratic Party
New York, August 11th - As Vice President Al Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman head to Los Angeles for next week's Democratic national convention, the issues of character and personal morality have taken center stage.
The conventional wisdom on Gore's selection of Lieberman as his running mate is that it was a bold stroke designed to distance the Democratic ticket from Bill Clinton's personal misbehavior in the Monica Lewinsky affair, conduct which was roundly condemned by Lieberman in a speech on the Senate floor last year. Further evidence of Gore's attempt to come across as the "squeaky clean" candidate was his decision to withdraw an invitation for Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) to speak at the convention after she refused to cancel a fundraiser for her Political Action Committee, Hispanic Unity 2000, which was to be held at Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner's Mansion.
"Gore's emphasis on personal morality and 'character' is all well and good," notes William D. Hartung, a Senior Fellow at the New York-based World Policy Institute. "But the real problem with the Democratic Party - and the Democratic ticket - is a failure of public ethics, not private morality," says Hartung.
Private Morality Versus Public Ethics: A Tale of Two Fundraisers
"Loretta Sanchez is being censured for holding a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, but no one in the Democratic Party hierarchy raises an eyebrow at the fact that Raytheon - a major weapons contractor with a multi-billion dollar stake in the National Missile Defense (NMD) system - co-hosted a fundraiser for Sanchez and her colleagues in the conservative 'Blue Dog' caucus on Santa Monica Pier a day before the Democratic National Convention kicks off. Gore and Lieberman are carefully attuned to even the slightest hint of personal impropriety, but they are politically tone deaf when it comes to the massive conflict of interest involved in their avid solicitation of funds from major weapon makers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin," Hartung asserts.
..more..
also goes on to discuss Lieberman and the DNC..
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