HuffingtonPost: Trey Ellis: Why Is Hillary in Bed with Blank-Rome?

[Totally Committed]

I would find this disturbing whether or not I supported her for the Presidency (which I do not...) I have supported Senator Kennedy for years, I have had nothing but respect for Senator Boxer, and I am disgusted to see their names here as well. From HuffingtonPost:

Trey Ellis: Why Is Hillary in Bed with Blank-Rome?

Senator Clinton was right to out the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that targeted her husband's presidency. Now why are she and Senator Kennedy allowing the "ATM of the GOP," uber-lobbying law firm Blank-Rome, to host $1000-a-plate luncheons for them? Blank-Rome, where Swift Boat retired Rear Admiral William Schachte is a lobbyist. Blank-Rome, where Bush pioneer and re-elect Rick Santorum national finance director David Girard-diCarlo is chairman. Blank-Rome, who lobbied their pals at FEMA to award a no-bid contract to one of their clients to rebuild classrooms after Katrina at double the wholesale price.

I understand why Blank-Rome is finally starting to spread the wealth to Democrats. Perhaps more than any other lobbying firm in Washington they had hitched their wagon to the Bush administration. Now that the sun is setting on that empire Blank-Rome will either have to adapt fast or die. They've hired Heather Podesta, wife of Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta and brother-in-law of one of my heroes, former Clinton chief of staff and now President for the Center for American Progress, John Podesta.

What I don't understand, however, if Democrats are truly serious about distancing themselves from the Republican "culture of corruption," is how they can be in bed with people like this? Are they really the only ones out there with money? Don't they see that the strings attached might be antithetical to every thing they stand for?

Most troubling about these strange bedfellows is that Senator Clinton (and Senator Boxer) have recently been hawking a shady Blank-Rome client, Ionatron. I blogged about them earlier and The New York Post has reported extensively on the company and its founder, serial Wall Street cheater Robert Howard who was fined $42,000 by the SEC for improperly tipping off a friend and then three years later fined $2.7 million for allegedly "issuing false and misleading statements about its earnings projections."

The Post reported last week that Ionatron is part of an ongoing investigation but the SEC will not say if they are the focus of the probe.

Ionatron claims to zap Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with man-made lightning and has been generating good press including a recent cover story in The Los Angeles Times. What they don't tell you is that the gizmos cost a million bucks a pop and we would need thousands of them to make a difference in the lives and safety of our troops. The Talon robots already in the field cost $100,000 and, get this, the amazing new Bombots cost just $5000.

But Ionatron lavished Blank-Rome with $200,000 in lobbying fees as of 2004 so I guess they expect some bang for their buck.

http://digbig.com/4gsxb

Gawdalmighty, I am disgusted with all this sh*t! No wonder this Party has no balls, no integrity, and no intention of serving the voters any longer. Look who they get in bed with just for the $$$$$$$$$!

Ugh. I feel like I need a shower!

TC

[Canuckistanian]

1. Senate Armed Services Committee lobbying

But Hillary's name shouldn't be on this. And to be seen mingling with these slimy opportunists won't help her gain any populist vote.

That's campaign fodder.

[comradebillyboy]

2. Why Is Hillary in Bed with Blank-Rome? dunno, I thought

she was a lesbian.

[EC]

3. Maybe, they don't want them working for the Republicans

anymore, since the Swifties were so effective, so they hire them?

[papau]

4. So Hillary should be pushing Bombots because the ZAP adds nothing?

I sometimes find these anti-Hillary blasts a little confusing.

What is the crime or evil here? Does anyone think Hillary orders the Army to purchase anything?

[xchrom]

5. i find it fascinating to watch the tendrils of corporate

power wind their way here there.

this is repugnant. nothing and nothing less.

and if there is to be any REAL future for average americans -- then these guys represent the cancer that needs to be treated --

personally -- i see little hope -- the corporate poison runs so deep in this country that i think in my life time i'll see it dissolve.

[radio4progressives]

6. I'll have to ask my Senator about this...

In another post, i wondered out loud if part of the reason why our fearful leaders are being challenged or possibly blackmailed on potential ethical charges - to explain at least in part - their lack of, well, leadership and courage to come out in front on major matters of importance, regardless of their "minority" status in Congress.