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We can't afford to be naive about what is happening and what is at stake.
The Republicans well know ehere the battle lines are drawn. They will not be sitting down at any table and giving any quarter or negotiating in good faith, they will not be "transcending those tired old liberal versus conservative politics," they will not be coming together with us based on hope or anything else, they will not be surrendering any power for the good of the country, they will not be embracing any new feel good politics or doing any healing of the divisions.
Read the entire article if you are able to. The president of the US Chamber of Commerce is saying that any candidates even talking negatively about corporations will be punished with vicious anonymous attack ads, and he has an enormous budget at his disposal to carry out the threats.
Excerpts from the article:
Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. "We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said.
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The chamber president is scheduled to announce the broad outlines of the organization's plans for the 2008 election and beyond at a news conference here today. Donohue also plans to fire a rhetorical warning shot across the bow of candidates considered unfriendly to business. "I'm concerned about anti-corporate and populist rhetoric from candidates for the presidency, members of Congress and the media," he said. "It suggests to us that we have to demonstrate who it is in this society that creates jobs, wealth and benefits -- and who it is that eats them." In advance of today's news conference, Donohue told The Times of his plans to be active in 140 congressional districts this year, as well as the presidential contest.
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Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the ads. In 2000, drug companies paid the chamber to run advertisements in Michigan to help elect then-Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham. Pharmaceutical companies that year gave the chamber additional millions to run issue ads attacking mostly Democratic House candidates. And large corporations paid $1 million or more to support advertising campaigns against judges deemed too friendly to plaintiffs.
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