Political Commentary & Cartoons

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

IS THIS A KARL ROVE ISSUE?

I am copying the complete Hugh Hewitt - Townhall blog entry into my blog because this issue is of major consequence. David Axelrod is one of the main people in the Obama group and we were told that there would be no lobbyist and typical government corruption. We saw Walpin put by the wayside because he uncovered corruption with a friend of Obama's in AmeriCorp. There is a call for ACORN to be investigated as a criminal enterprise. There is a Facebook group called Back to Dollars - Government vs Business which has a paragraph describing the coalition of Politician/Big Business executives/Union management building a very powerful, well entrenched machine - a paragraph points out one of the paradoxes of the candidate who represents the common people - Ever wondered why so many REALLY rich people tend to support the Democrat party? Ever wondered why Goldman Sachs funneled so much money to Obama’s campaign? For the politically well-connected, there comes a point at which there’s more to gain from dealing with Big Government—at their competitors’ and taxpayers’ expense—than from supporting the platform of liberty and limited government that appeals to honest, politically unconnected individuals.



http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/



Tuesday, August 18, 2009
David Axelrod's Very Big ProblemPosted by: Hugh Hewitt at 6:27 PM
The allegations in this Bloomberg story --if true-- pose a huge problem for a senior advisor to the president, David Axelrod. This is the heart of the problem:
Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until he sold his interest after Obama’s victory, government records show. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, which it’s due to pay in installments beginning Dec. 31. Axelrod’s son, Michael, still works there. He didn’t return a phone call. The firm’s Web site continues to feature David Axelrod’s work on the Obama campaign. (Emphasis added.)The problem is that Axelrod's former firm is currently receiving huge fees "from Healthy Economy Now, a coalition that includes the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA," as well as AARP, the SEIU and other big players in the health care debate. If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that's a conflict of interest. Laundering the money through a "coalition" doesn't remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety. The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod's severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly. These forthcoming payments to Axelrod are much more significant than the sort of "retained ties" that Democrats blasted Dick Cheney for vis-a-vis Halliburton even though there was no high level negotiations between the vice president and his former company.David Axelrod has some tough questions to answer, and according to Politico's Mike Allen, Politico's Ken Vogel will be publishing more on matters Axelrodian tomorrow. (Thetranscript of my interview with Allen will be posted here later tonight.) Vogel's story on Axelrod's son from a few days back casts doubt on the Bloomberg story's accuracy as Bloomberg has Axelrod's son still at Axelrod's old firm, but Vogel has him at The Huffington Post. If it was Karl Rove in a similar set of circumstances, the blogs and some in MSM would already be demanding a special prosecutor. There are lots of questions for Mr. Axelrod, the first one being whether the Bloomberg story is accurate. if the answer is "yes," the second will be: "Have you lawyered up?"UPDATE: Ken Vogel just confirmed that his story in tomorrow's Politico delves into this issue and that Axelrod did not respond to Vogel's e-mail on the subject, though he has done so in the past. The transcript of the Vogel interview will also be up later tonight at the transcripts page.Vogel also informed me that Axelrod has two sons, one of whom does indeed continue to work at his dad's old firm which is powered up on health care debate dollars.UPDATE 2: Senator Jon Kyl just expressed surprise when I told him the outline of the story and, without prompting, suggested as I have above that if Karl Rove had been discovered to be in the same situation as David Axelrod, the hounds would be in the hunt already. Of course, this is the Obama-smitten MSM, so it remains to be seen whether any of them start asking the obvious questions. The transcript of my conversation with Senator Kyl will be posted later at the Transcripts page.

1 comment:

  1. ok, there is so mucn of contridiction. like to assume your conservative position is enlightened. how can you communicate if you accuse the other side as being blimd.
    i am only cappable of one issue at a time. so gitmo. a great place. thats ok. however to lock somebody up with no right to see what he is accused of , is what the uproar is about. now you either know that or make up stuff. gitmo is out of us jurisdiction and thats why it is a problem, would not be if they just followed simple rules that most people here and around the world agree . with. right to defend yourself. period. there is much common ground here, and most of the people picked up were not the criminals you tend to make people think they are. a lot have been released already prior to obama and they were there several years. no guilt or anything. thats what we are talking aboutn as if you did not know.

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