Rawstory:Rep. Jim McCrery has accepted nearly $200,000

[cal04]

The Campaign for America's future, a group seeking to quash the "big money corporate agenda" will issue a report today showing that the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA) - President Bush's ally, and the man charged to push Social Security privatization through the House, has accepted nearly $200,000 in campaign contributions from the Wall Street interests that stand to gain the most from privatization. They also reveal two former McCrery staffers are now lobbyists for Wall Street.

http://rawstory.rawprint.com/205/mccrery_report_223.php

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. None Dare Call It Bribery.

And they won't, either.

[PleadTheFirst]

2. I'm shocked, I tell you! SHOCKED!!!

... Okay, not really. :-(

[BBradley]

3. Does this surprise anyone?

The whole premise has been a bit unbelievable to me. %5 of your benifits is hardly going to destroy your finances or make you rich, but %5 of the entire social security system would make anyone on wall street trample a group of pre-schoolers. This is big money for Wall Street, and absolute crap for the average joe.

[havocmom]

4. The best cons and scams work that way. Don't steal a lot from a few.

They will notice and come after you. Steal a little from a lot. Most won't even notice, a lot will not bother to complain and the few who object mightily can be removed from the game one way or another.

Ever find questionable charges on your phone bill? Just a buck or three, nothing big, but multiplied by the number of bills that get sent out...

When you follow the $$, the trail leads to the board rooms. THAT is where the real criminals are.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. He wasn't going to pass on $200,000. However, he would tell you

that, of course, the money has no influence on his decisions.

[G_j]

6. brought to mind, Class-Action bill lobbying

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3155996

Public Citizen Press Releases
Providing the latest information about Public Citizen activities
-------------------------------------------

Feb. 21, 2005

Chamber President Tom Donohue Has Vested Interest in Campaign to Limit
Consumers' Legal Rights as Steward of Two Scandal-Marred Companies

Public Citizen Report Details Donohue's Questionable Performance on Two
Corporate Boards

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Tom Donohue has a vested interest in the national
campaign to limit corporate accountability because the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce president sits on the boards of two scandal-ridden
corporations, according to a Public Citizen report released today.

Though Donohue has proclaimed the importance of board members serving
as watchdogs for the corporations they manage, he sits on the boards of
two publicly traded companies - Qwest Communications International Inc.
and Union Pacific Corp. - whose reputations have been marred by serious
misdeeds that have prompted the type of civil lawsuits that Donohue is
trying to limit. Between them, the two companies have engaged in a
monumental deception of investors, violated federal and state
regulations on a massive scale, jeopardized public safety, and perverted
the American judicial system through alteration and destruction of
evidence.

Under Donohue's leadership, the Chamber has been one of the most
outspoken supporters of pro-business tort law changes. It has supported
anti-consumer class action legislation and spent millions of dollars in
state races to defeat judicial and attorney general candidates
sympathetic to consumer and investor rights. Donohue has called for a
massive overhaul of the tort system and reduced regulatory oversight by
government agencies - the same authorities that have held Qwest and
Union Pacific accountable for a long string of corporate misdeeds.

"Using tens of millions in corporate money, Tom Donohue is
systematically trying to disarm the public institutions that hold
corporate violators accountable - the liability system, the courts,
state attorneys general and regulatory agencies," said Public Citizen
President Joan Claybrook. "He sits on boards of two companies that serve
as vivid examples of why we need strong law enforcement for crime in the
corporate suites."

Among Public Citizen's findings:

* Qwest has paid $250 million to settle fraud charges brought by
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for overstating earnings,
has paid $25 million to settle five lawsuits concerning alleged insider
trading and still faces billions of dollars in potential civil
litigation liabilities.

* Since Donohue joined Qwest's board, the company has been
assessed more than $114 million in fines by 10 states and the Federal
Communications Commission for defrauding consumers and for failing to
disclose secret business dealings.
* Instead of punishing Qwest's corporate executives, Donohue and
his fellow board members rewarded them with higher pay packages. Qwest's
board of directors has received dismal ratings from two independent
research organizations for furnishing executives with exorbitant pay
packages despite poor corporate performance. Donohue sits on the board's
compensation committee.

Since Donohue joined the Union Pacific board in 1998, the company has
repeatedly been found liable in accidents resulting from poor training
or unsatisfactory upkeep of tracks, has pressured workers not to report
accidents, and has been deemed responsible by courts for manipulating or
destroying evidence:

* The Arkansas Supreme Court said in a 2004 decision involving a
fatal accident, "the record in this case reflects the development of a
corporate policy at Union Pacific that put company profits before public
safety."

* A federal judge in Arkansas fined Union Pacific $168,000 in 2001
for destroying evidence in a case stemming from another railway crossing
crash that left a motorist dead.

* In Washington state, a federal judge sanctioned Union Pacific in
February 2002 after it was revealed that a manager secretly fixed a
faulty railway crossing after a motorist was killed there. The judge
labeled the actions "egregious" and said "severe sanctions are
appropriate" since the manager's "actions were not that of a rogue
underling." Union Pacific had sought compensation from the estate of the
driver in this case, claiming the crash had left one of its locomotives
damaged.

Again, Donohue and fellow board members appear to have rewarded Union
Pacific executives with ever higher pay. An independent research
organization last year recommended against retaining Donohue as a board
member because of his role on the compensation committee in boosting
executives' pay.

Donohue has acknowledged the responsibility of board members to make
sure companies behave responsibly. In 2000, he was quoted as calling for
board members to perform "due diligence" and be active in understanding
the company so they can provide the best possible advice. "Save me from
a bunch of people on a board who are going to tell me what I want to
hear," he said.

"The hypocrisy hits you like a train," said Frank Clemente, director
of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. "Donohue has called for
board members to exercise proper oversight of companies, yet he has
responded to wrongdoing in companies he oversees by hiking executive
pay. Donohue's crusade to limit the ability of consumers to hold
companies accountable for wrongdoing takes on a new light when you look
at his activity on these corporate boards."

Public Citizen's report also draws attention to the Chamber president's
opposition to the SEC's proposed shareholder access rule, which would
allow shareholders holding a significant portion of a company's shares
to place nominees for the corporate board on the official company
ballot. Currently there is no practical way for shareholders to elect
directors not nominated by the incumbent board. Donohue has a vested
interest in keeping things as they are, since his continued tenure on
Qwest's board has been challenged and some shareholders indicate they
would like to challenge it again in the near future.

Public Citizen's complete report, Tom Donohue: U.S. Chamber of
Commerce President Oversees Renegade Corporations While Pushing for
Limits to Corporate Accountability, can be found at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/021805DonohueForPdf.pd... .
###

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org .
------------------
http://www.nationalunderwriter.com/lifeandhealth/hotnews/viewLH.asp?article=2_18_05_13_16353.xml&src=6

Bush Signs Major Class-Action Bill
By Matt Brady / NU Online News Service, Feb. 18, 2005, 1:18 p.m. EST

<snip>
Frank Keating, president and chief executive officer of the American Council of Life Insurers, has hailed the signing of S. 5 and the lawmakers and others who worked for the bill's passage.

"President Bush deserves high marks for his determination in getting the reform legislation enacted into law," Keating says in a statement. "Congress also deserves great credit for acting quickly this year to address class action abuses. In addition, Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earned special recognition for their role on this issue. Without the leadership of Tom and chamber, it is not clear whether we'd be celebrating today."

The role of chamber also drew some criticism from opponents of the bill, however, who claim that it is a gift for special interests that will limit the rights of regular American citizens.

"This brazen and shameless attack on Americans' legal rights was well-funded by the insurance, drug and other industries," says Todd Smith, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Washington, after the House approved the bill Thursday. "Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Congress openly acknowledged this week that it spent more than $53 million in 2004 alone on efforts to lobby this bill and others that undermine the legal rights of American families."

<snip>