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One of the key votes against "cramdown" in the Senate came, surprisingly, from Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. According to an FEC lobbying report filed by the American Council of Life Insurers, Dorgan’s wife Kimberly worked for them as a lobbyist to defeat the measure during the first quarter of 2009 (PDF).
The Amercan Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) represents 373 insurance companies. Headed by former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, they account for 93 percent of the U.S. life insurance industry’s total assets.
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on March 17, 2009, Keating expressed opposition to letting bankruptcy judges write-down the principle of first mortgages to current values because it "could potentially trigger significant downgrades to life insurers’ Triple-A rated residential mortgage-backed investments." (PDF)
It is estimated that 8 million homeowners will be foreclosed upon in the next four years. According to a study by Credit Suisse, the bill would have reduced foreclosures by 20% with no cost to taxpayers. The Center for Responsible Lending (PDF) says that foreclosures on subprime loans through the end fo 2009 will result in a decline in property value for homes in the surrounding areas of $352 billion, or an average of $8,667 per home.
The American Council of Life Insurers PAC also made $119,300 in campaign donations during the first quarter of 2009, including $1000 to Max Baucus, who voted against the measure. They also contributed to Blue Dog and New Democat Coalition PACs.
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 requires that lobbying disclose "whether they held what is referred to as an ‘official covered position’ – such as a congressional seat or staff level job or an executive level position in the executive branch – at any point in the last 20 years." The 1Q 2009 lobbying report filed by the ACLI does not disclose any of these relationships.
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Conflict of interest? Brings new meaning to being in bed with the lobbists!
Corporate lobbying needs to be made unlawful. Or at least lobbying can be a non paying occupation.
This is so completely out of control with critter’s wife, kids, cousins and so forth having these cushy lobbying jobs making oodles of money and buying votes.
TERM LIMITS
Hmm, I saw the Dorgan name on your chart, Jane, and I wondered.
Thank you for confirming my (mean) suspicion.
I understand that Congress will soon take up lobby reform./s
(Apparently there is some concern that the Congressional ‘romper’ rooms are insufficiently ‘welcoming’ and ‘comfortable’ for our hard-working “representatives” of democracy.)
They will do nothing because when they leave congress most of these slackers become lobbyists and see that as the pot of gold waiting for all their hard work and service… and sacrifice.
The continuing support by Dems for the finance and insurance industries over the people should make progressives realize they have a chance to use this info as a hammer come primary time next year. There are Dems who are against any new regs on offshore accounts.
The sad part is that until progressives start acting out Gandhi’s admonition “Be the change you want to see in the world” nothing will change. We think nothing of using our credit cards or banking with the likes of Citi, Chase and BoA. People scream for change. As long as somebody else is doing the changing.
How can you primary someone with all the financial backing they need from FIRE?
Who says they need FIRE backing? Someone who’s willing to start now and work their ass off can pull off a challenge. What we don’t need is people who give up before they get started because they believe they can’t win because there’s no FIRE money for them.
Of course, it’s not impossible, but it would be very very difficult. The amounts of money you’ve seen to date are petty cash compared to what corps could do if they needed to. So if a few good guys manage to get elected for a cycle or two, all that would do is make the corps up the ante.
Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but I’m pretty discouraged.
The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007:
Section 302
(note: there were no House rules on this at the time the Bill was introduced)
Section 552
Section 210
note: prior to passage, respective Admin offices of both chambers were responsible for notifying lobbyists of violations but there was no real public disclosure requirement
Section 211 – Penalties
(prev. max. of $50k with no jail time)
I’m with eCahn, the system’s broke beyond repair. Every place you stick a finger in a leaks springs somewhere elese.
Dems are in the pocket of Wall Street and Corporations THAT IS THEIR CONSTITUENCY despite the BS they spew at election campaigns. Once elected they basically only talk to money.
and thank you Jane Hamsher ! stellar coverage
That congress, both dem and rethug, are OWNED body and soul by corporate interests is no surprise to me. I am however somewhat surprised that you are surprised/shocked at the fact that even dems have sold out. Congress sold its soul to the corporations when they made bribery legal. That bribery being “campaign contributions” that they collect, while telling everyone loudly that the money will of course “never influence how I vote”. And they expect everyone to believe them. The MSM is just as bad. Corporate owned they tell the sheeple only what they want “we the people” to hear. Going by the actual amount of news available to everyone, the fact that so many in the US remain ignorant of both the world and their local areas, is why I call them sheeple.
I see the need to run a campaign without corporate money as quite the challenge to take up for a progressive, particularly now. The first words out of a candidate’s mouth should be “I will take no corporate money. Period.” In political campaigns “impossible” is not a roadblock for me, it’s a challenge.
Cash is a lot less of an advantage in a closed primary. We’ve still got leverage there.
Ned Lamont had nine-percent name recognition in January 2006, but beat JoLie’s ass bad in the August primary. If JoeLie hadn’t paid $350,000 in cash to narrow the margin of his primary loss, he couldn’t have run in the General.
Unemployment is going north. All the lobbyists on K Street can’t stop that.
So what are ya gonna do about it? The operative word being “do.”
Seconded.
Ned Lamont has money of his own too.
Last time Jim Himes was here, he seemed to have reverted to his Goldman Sachs days.
Spotlight on Byron Dorgan y’all !
go to the right of the box, click on ‘region’, type in ND and then hit ‘update’ – you will find Bismark and Fargo papers
How soon folks forget the Lamont campaign. If the CT Rethugs hadn’t voted for Short Ride in the general he’d have been history. Lamont’s campaign didn’t rely solely on people sitting at home sending money to ActBlue/Blue America via their credit cards.
Dorgan’s wife? Well, it wouldn’t be crony capitalism without cronies now would it?
Siphoning money from the taxpayers has become quite the family business. An educated and high-born Mafia.
Ned’s got his own money?
I heard he inherited a lot and that his wife made a ton.
You know, I am thinking that this is a criminal act. That the act of lobbying by a senator’s wife is fundamentally illegal if it is something her husband will be voting on, and has taken money from one of the lobbyists. Money has changed hands and a vote was purchased.
I can not imagine however, why such behavior would not merit almost immediate arrest to allow law enforcement authorities to prevent such people from acting to cost the american people even more money, and that it is urgent enough to issue injunctions and to incarcerate without communication, any of the parties involved. Madoff certainly helped his family to a billion in the days he was allowed to stay free. That was thousands of people involved. This is in the hundreds of millions.
I wonder if I am alone in thinking this way?
Obama has in a way poisoned the well for small donors. I suspect that if he doesn’t get onboard with the “populist” Change he campaigned on he’s doomed to one term (and I hate to be a pessimist), but the small donors who fueled his campaign are the ones that the lobbyists hate and work against 24/7/365.
Dorgan’s wife is symptomatic of the “full employment for the powerful” culture in the District. What Tom Delay and his wife did was no less heinous, we just didn’t like him because he was a republican pig… Dorgan is doing much the same thing, his wife collects fat checks to lobby against his constituents and it remains in the background until, well, the Jane Hamshers of the world open the curtains and let the sun shine in.
One of the key members of Obama’s cabinet to-be was going to be Tom Daschle, whose wife has been for years, I believe, a major health industry lobbyist. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have an HHS Secretary sharing pillow-talk with a key lobbyist? Of course it never happened, but not because of that and his Post-Senate lobbying, but because Daschle’s hubris led him to avoid paying taxes he felt, I guess, were beneath him to pay. Daschle of course lobbied after leaving the senate and guess where his “special expertise” on Healthcare came from? Why his clients… CVS, AbbotLabs, and HealthSouth among others.
So does it surprise me that Dorgan’s wife was picking up retirement money lobbying against her husbands constituents? No, it just meets my expectations. -sigh- better Dems, please? Please?
That figure — that surrounding home values will decline about $8,800 because of foreclosures seems to me on the low side, if anuything. Just a feeling. Not based on anything really
JoFish!!! Haven’t been here while you’ve been here lately. Just wanted to say great post on SERE training. Thanks!
I’m forwarding this to Ed Schulz. He’s a part-time North Dakotan and has had Dorgan on his radio show many times.
This may be the kind of thing that really catches Ed’s attention.
SCUMBAGS.
Only two real Statesmen in Congress…Senator Richard Durbin and Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
I wouldn’t give a plugged nickel for the rest of the sell outs, including Obama.
When will Obama stop the bloody war in Iraq? Afghanistan?
Why did he appoint the sleazy Goldman Sachs shill, Geithner?
Because Obama is a tool of the Bankers the way Bush was a tool of the Industrial Military Complex.
I have had enough.
We live in the United States of Goldman Sachs.
American’s sit on their hands at their own peril.
It’s behavior like this that gives the Republicans hope. When the public gets tired of it, the will be open to the siren song of “If they continue to take your money and deliver nothing, just cut taxes and get rid of government.”
Unless this attitude of entitlement and privilege among Democratic Congresscritters is fixed soon, a Democratic majority will be very short-lived.
Doesn’t the Democratic leadership know this? Oh, I forgot who the Democratic leadership actually is.
The penalty is going to be applied when? Or are we going to use this fact in an ad?
Good catch on this one, Jane. Anyone given any thought to mentioning this during Dorgan’s re-election?
* sigh *
I would have to include Sen. Russ Feingold as a good guy. I’m from NJ and my Senators are usually pretty good, but not always. Frelinghuysen and Garrett are pretty bad.
Yes, we have a lot of bears in NJ. The elementary kids in my son’s school have a drill to get inside the school when the bears come around.
Thanks, Jane, for your continuing coverage of who are representatives really represent and what it means for the rest of us. The selection process for which Blue Dogs to oppose in 2010 must already be well under way. All this is essential information to have in that process.
It’s like a circus act or magic trick. He sleeps with the lobbyist, but everybody else gets screwed.