Report: Adelson’s Donations to Romney Could Be “Limitless”
If Forbes’ report here is true, it will truly raise the issue of whether for the first time in history one person’s massive, utterly unfettered use of his personal wealth can literally pay to remove someone from the White House. It should lead to a rethinking of Citizen’s United (don’t hold your breath). Forbes:
Forbes has confirmed that billionaire Sheldon Adelson, along with his wife Miriam, has donated $10 million to the leading Super PAC supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney–and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A well-placed source in the Adelson camp with direct knowledge of the casino billionaire’s thinking says that further donations will be “limitless.”
Adelson, who has built Las Vegas Sands into an global casino empire, will do “whatever it takes” to defeat Obama, this source says. And given that Adelson is worth $24.9 billion–and told Forbes in a recent rare interview about his political giving that he had been willing to donate as much as $100 million to his initial presidential preference, Newt Gingrich–that “limitless” description telegraphs potential nine-digit support of Romney.
Adelson, this source continues, believes that “no price is too high” to protect the U.S. from what he sees as Obama’s “socialization” of America, as well as securing the safety of Israel. He added that Adelson, 78, considers this to be the most important election of his lifetime.
Forget all the old histories about deep pockets’ Nelson Rockfeller, Steve Forbes, or Joe Kennedy doling out the cash for JFK. This sounds like by the time this is over, they’ll all look like pikers.
But it could work out well for some parts of the electorate:
Republicans can indeed get in and complete the transformation of the Supreme Court, and Democratic liberals who don’t try to counter big money by donating or voting because they want to punish their party and show how disappointed they are in Obama will have four years to blame it all on money and not their staying home.
Do the Democrats have a plan to deal with this? (Don’t hold your breath..)
Earlier today, First Read said this:
All told, the New York Times says, the Adlesons have donated $35 million to pro-GOP Super PACs. While we’ve all become numb to money in politics, that doesn’t make it less relevant. And $35 million (and possibly counting) is an astonishing sum from one individual and his wife. What’s more, we’ve seen politicians spend more than this on races — hello, Michael Bloomberg — but they were spending it on themselves. But folks like Adelson aren’t running for office; rather, they’re dabbling in politics like someone would dabble in fantasy baseball. It’s truly breathtaking.
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I’m afraid Adelson wants a new war in the middle-east (Iran) and doesn’t want his tax dollars to pay for it.
So now were at the highest bidder in our “democracy.” If this is the way it’s going then there really is no hope for our “democratic republic.” May a pox and curse be upon the Roberts court!
I never thought I’d loose faith in our government, but now I have and I don’t see much changing to reverse this course we are on.
What even has me more afraid is that my stepson who’s serving in the Army will be shipped to Iran or wherever the neocons decide we should have a war in a couple of years (there are 17 of these people on Romney’s staff). If the American people elect Romney they won’t know what will hit them when he plays “neocon war.”
Well, gee, he’s only worth $254+ billion. He’s probably just bored. 3/4 of his money comes from casinos in Macao, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The Citizens United ruling didn’t let and individuals like Adelson spend unlimited amounts because they already could do so (going back to Buckley v. Valeo in 1976). CU applied to organizations like corporations and unions.
Yeah, David, the left seems to be having trouble processing that.
And I’m not sure how the headline made it through the fact-o-meter. However much Adelson spends, it will not be limitless.
The fact that they could do this before is something I’m aware of. I’ve often wondered what held back these billionaires from doing exactly that before. The new thing individuals have not they didn’t before was they can donate anonymously. Before at least if there was a scumbag with an agenda we could at least find a money trail and connect the dots, now, that is not an option if they wish to be sly about it.
And corporations being able to spend worries me as well. Sure, maybe there is no way a lot of wealthy want to spend out of pocket, but when its on the company dime, why not. When you’ve got heavily regulated industries like the Finance sector and Big Oil able to just spend whatever, that is a bit scary. Considering how much money it will make the company if certain regulations go away or are not enforced, its almost something a corporation would have to do since its so much in their own best interests.
Adelson isn’t anonymous.
But you do raise a good question, Slam: why weren’t billionaires playing a larger role before? Maybe the answer has more to do with the polarized political situation than campaign finance laws.
Well, money has always been a problem. Once upon a time the rich would just give a big check to a candidate. But attempts to limit that have mostly pushed it to other avenues. That and it costs so much to run a campaign (the number just get higher and higher).