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onehandle

(51,122 posts)
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:06 AM Dec 2012

Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known (150 Million)

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson vowed to spend as much as $100 million to defeat President Barack Obama and help the GOP take control of Congress. According to two GOP fundraisers with close ties to the Las Vegas billionaire, he made good on that promise -- and then some. Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said.

Adelson, a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies, has said that his humongous spending was spurred chiefly by his fear that a second Obama term would bring "vilification of people that were against him." As that second term begins, Adelson's international casino empire faces a rough road, with two federal criminal investigations into his business.

This coming week, Adelson plans to visit Washington, according to three separate GOP sources familiar with his travel schedule. While here, he’s arranged Hill meetings with at least one House GOP leader in which he is expected to discuss key issues, including possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the anti-bribery law that undergirds one federal probe into his casino network, according to a Republican attorney with knowledge of his plans.

During the election, Adelson told Politico that the Justice Department investigation, and the way he felt treated by prosecutors, was a primary motivation for his investment in Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other GOP candidates. He put his money where his mouth was. The two GOP fundraisers, both with strong ties to Adelson, said that the casino mogul dished out close to $150 million, including between $30 million and $40 million to the Karl Rove-founded Crossroads GPS and at least $15 million to grassroots efforts with financial links to Charles and David Koch. Among other major beneficiaries of Adelson’s largess were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received almost $5 million from Adelson, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which got the bulk of its $6.5 million budget from him, the fundraisers said.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/sheldon-adelson-2012-election_n_2223589.html

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Sheldon Adelson Spent Far More On Campaign Than Previously Known (150 Million) (Original Post) onehandle Dec 2012 OP
Republicans embrace gambling as one of their "family values" Berlum Dec 2012 #1
or Republicans embrace money, as if it were their God. olddad56 Dec 2012 #7
He thinks he's a gangster. Turd Blossom ought to turn states evidence and go into Witness Protection marble falls Dec 2012 #13
All that money would be much more beneficial in the public treasury. blueclown Dec 2012 #2
It kind of makes it look like he's guilty ... surrealAmerican Dec 2012 #3
So he pissed away 150 million because the prosecutors were mean to him? nt bemildred Dec 2012 #4
That's about $150 to regular folks oberliner Dec 2012 #5
$150,000,000.00 totally wasted on nothing and he will not notice the difference Coyotl Dec 2012 #6
My $10.00 contribution Island Deac Dec 2012 #8
It makes me just want to cry when I think of how much good that $150M could have done for people catbyte Dec 2012 #9
hilarious! blue_heron Dec 2012 #10
This is what the severely undertaxed are allowed to get away with. HughBeaumont Dec 2012 #11
+1000 crazylikafox Dec 2012 #12
the feds only go after prosecutions they can win Dog Gone at Penigma Dec 2012 #14
He's trying to buy his way out of a bribery investigation Renew Deal Dec 2012 #15
Normally one would say "Ha" but with Holder as AG, who knows? byeya Dec 2012 #16
Now see, that's the thing Ligyron Dec 2012 #18
Spitzer would be OK with me - we need an aggressive AG byeya Dec 2012 #20
150 million? heaven05 Dec 2012 #17
Bet that ole Donald Trump didn't put in a single dime of his own money no_hypocrisy Dec 2012 #19
"Spread the wealth" JohnnyRingo Dec 2012 #21
And here's what he got n2doc Dec 2012 #22
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act starroute Dec 2012 #23
Cue Nelson Munz: "HAW-HAW" FSogol Dec 2012 #24
He wants all the "Justice" money can buy! davsand Dec 2012 #25
and he won't feel the loss of one single bit of it. nt Raine Dec 2012 #26
Does anyone know the payout percentages at Adelson's casinos? jmowreader Dec 2012 #27

Berlum

(7,044 posts)
1. Republicans embrace gambling as one of their "family values"
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:09 AM
Dec 2012

Sheesh. No wonder everyone recognizes by now that hypocrisy inhabits the rotting core of the Republican soul.

They wander the land preaching their so-called Republican Family Values, then slip into the alley for a quicke with a Las Vegas bagman. Again and again and again. As usual with republicans, their glorious moralizing words in no way match the degenerate reality they actually inhabit.

marble falls

(56,359 posts)
13. He thinks he's a gangster. Turd Blossom ought to turn states evidence and go into Witness Protection
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:58 AM
Dec 2012

while he can.

blueclown

(1,869 posts)
2. All that money would be much more beneficial in the public treasury.
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:12 AM
Dec 2012

Raise the top marginal tax rate on incomes over $2 million to 75%. Double the long-term capital gains rate from 15% to 30%. It'll goa long way towards decreasing our deficit.

surrealAmerican

(11,340 posts)
3. It kind of makes it look like he's guilty ...
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:15 AM
Dec 2012

... of those bribery charges, doesn't it?

Could he wind up in jail over this?

 

Coyotl

(15,262 posts)
6. $150,000,000.00 totally wasted on nothing and he will not notice the difference
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:31 AM
Dec 2012

What we really need are income redistribution mechanisms. I know, raise the minimum wage.

Oh yeah, and tax the rich

catbyte

(34,174 posts)
9. It makes me just want to cry when I think of how much good that $150M could have done for people
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:46 AM
Dec 2012

instead of pissing it away on his greedy, selfish attempt to influence peddle the Republican nominee. Oh well. I know it's just a drop in the bucket to that scumbag, but I'm still glad he wasted it.

blue_heron

(223 posts)
10. hilarious!
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 09:46 AM
Dec 2012

There is an ironic sense of humor that he gambled SOOOOO big and totally LOST! What quintessential Vegas behavior. Karma at its best. Thank god he failed. Maybe this could be used to get Citizen's United overturned, that this unlimited political donations is really just bribery!

14. the feds only go after prosecutions they can win
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 10:00 AM
Dec 2012

They have a 90%+ success rate.

So while Adelson has not been convicted yet, it certainly LOOKS as if he is guilty as charged, and is using more domestic corruption to try to get out of his foreign corruption problems.

This man is no 'poor victim', he's a rich criminal.

Ligyron

(7,592 posts)
18. Now see, that's the thing
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 10:24 AM
Dec 2012

It's time to replace him with someone like, dare I say it? Elliot Spitzer, F.I..

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
17. 150 million?
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 10:18 AM
Dec 2012

A drop in the bucket for a sucker like this. What GOP leader is he meeting with? Will the corruption law be changed at his behest? I hope these investigations shed some light on the slime under his rock.

JohnnyRingo

(18,581 posts)
21. "Spread the wealth"
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 11:13 AM
Dec 2012

Look at all the jobs he created in attacking Obama. And they complained that the stimulus was inneffective and a waste of money.

Imagine if Shel's taxes went up $150b last year. He'd say he has to close down.

starroute

(12,977 posts)
23. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 12:07 PM
Dec 2012

This is the origin of the law that Adelson wants repealed -- from a fascinating article that just appeared at Salon on one of the weirder figures in CIA history.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/02/better_than_bourne_who_really_killed_nick_deak/

Sen. Frank Church inflicted the first hit on Deak’s public image in 1975. During the Idaho senator’s famous hearings into CIA black ops, it was revealed that Deak’s Hong Kong branch helped the agency funnel millions in Lockheed bribe money to a Japanese yakuza don, political power broker, and former “Class A” war criminal named Yoshio Kodama. One of the most bizarre details involved a priest-turned-bagman who carried over 20 pounds of cash hidden under baskets of oranges on flights between Hong Kong and Tokyo, where he delivered the cash to Lockheed representatives.

Deak’s firm was not penalized for its role in the scandal — bribing foreign officials wasn’t yet illegal in the U.S. — but the damage to his firm’s image was real. The scandal brought down Japan’s government and governments in Western Europe; it also led to the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the first serious attempt to criminalize overseas bribery.

davsand

(13,420 posts)
25. He wants all the "Justice" money can buy!
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 02:42 PM
Dec 2012

He needs an adviser from the Illinois school of graft and corruption. Everybody knows you have to give money to BOTH sides so you are "protected" no matter who wins. You'd THINK somebody from Vegas would know how to hedge his bets!





Laura



This was intended as sarcasm in case you couldn't tell...

jmowreader

(50,453 posts)
27. Does anyone know the payout percentages at Adelson's casinos?
Mon Dec 3, 2012, 10:16 PM
Dec 2012

Sheldon Adelson bet $150 million on a presidential election and lost. If he's this bad of a gambler, he must be making his money on food and beverage service and convention space.

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