Who is Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford?
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program Up w/ Chris Hayes.
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo (PDF) proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians.
The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
File that last graf under No Shit, Sherlock. For their part, the American Bankers Association claims that the GLGC proposal was unsolicited, and they have chosen not to act on it. Sure, ok, maybe the American Bankers Association won’t ‘act on it’. Riiiiight, whatever y’all say. I mean, come on, we know what angle is anyway, so nothing surprising there. It’s GLGC I’m interested in.
For teh lulz, let’s see who and what makes up the lobbying firm of Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, shall we? Per the MSNBC piece:
Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.
{snip}
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo. But he responded to its characterization of Republicans as defenders of Wall Street by saying, “My understanding is that President Obama is the single largest recipient of donations from Wall Street.”
This GLGC sound like a regular gaggle of Goodfellas, AMIRITE? Folks, that isn’t the half of it:
The four principal lobbyists at the firm have donated $452,250 over the past five years to federal candidates and political party committees. The lionshare of that funding has gone to Republicans (95.3 percent) with just a small amount (4.7 percent) donated to Democrats.
Oh, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel’s comment up there would be flat out hilarious if I hadn’t seen it parroted so many times from the wannabe pundits of the internet left. ZOMFG!!1! Yeah, Obama is a tool of the 1%, and Wall Street owns him. Puh-leeze:
Even with low approval ratings and an uncertain path to reelection, President Obama is exceeding expectations in one area: His campaign is doing far better at attracting grass-roots financial support this year than his Republican rivals or his own historic effort in 2008, according to new contribution data.
The sheer scale of small donations, totaling $56 million for Obama and his party, has surprised many Democratic strategists and fundraisers, who feared that a sour economy would make it difficult for Obama to raise money from disenchanted and cash-strapped voters.
A Washington Post analysis shows that nearly half of his campaign contributions, and a quarter of the money he has raised for the Democratic Party, has come from donors giving less than $200. That’s much higher than it was in 2008 and far beyond what the best-funded Republicans have managed.
Yeah, Wall Street just lurves the O-Man, and he’s in their pocket, and the GOP is fightin’ for the common man. Just like Obama campaign adviser Anita Dunn, I have to wonder:
If that’s the case, why were tough financial reforms passed over party line Republican opposition?
Occam’s pocket-knife is one sharp motherfucker, no? To recap, here’s what I think the GLGC a-holes potentially get right, emphasis all mine:
The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”
The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, “should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.”
Seriously, these guys are freaked out enough to think that even Teabagger Congressfolk will turn on the banks. Boehner, representing the more ‘mainstream’ establishment GOP and their monied interests, has had a tough go of herding the Lipton’s Buffaloons already. If the the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey’s of the world lose further control of the minions they’ve manufactured under the auspices of the Tea Party, and those knuckleheads join forces with, or co-opt OWS, then the Oompa-Loompa Orange Speaker of the Hizzouse has a BIG problem to cry over (and boy does that guy like to blubber). I get why he and his plants at GLGC would want to try to destroy OWS. It’s both simple obvious, and complex obvious.
With all this in mind, I have a little, itsy-bitsy suggestion for those who think that President Obama, and/or Democrats generally, should be considered an enemy of the Occupy Wall Street movement:
SRSLY ——–> STFU
Obama is not the enemy. By and large, Democrats are not the enemy. Today’s enemy is the Republican Party, who have demonstrated time and again for more than 30 years that their alpha and omega is the hoarding of power in service to the wealthy. All those social issues, all those wedges, are nothing but scams to get the poor and middle class of this country to vote against their own self-interests year after year, election after election, decade after decade. It’s the same shit over and over and over and over and over…
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
–Sun Tzu, The Art of War
To go apeshit on the one guy, and the scraggly bunch of misfits he leads in the Democratic Party, is completely asinine. In the system we have now (as fucked up and dysfunctional as it is), Obama and the Democrats are the only people who will even consider doing anything to convalesce the middle-class off of life support. They’re the only ones who have the
slightest inclination to actually help the poor, effectively educate our children, expand and strengthen civil rights, protect women’s rights. Don’t forget, they’re also far less likely to spend a veritable shit-ton of money blowing things up in faraway lands… for no reason whatsoever. Right now, with a Presidential election approaching, these are the only people who will do anything at all to look out for the least of us. That’s it. It’s that fucking simple. Don’t like the Democratic options in front of you? Well, tough shit. It’s them, or old Captain Obvious up there is going to come find you in 2012 and punch you square in the neck. If you’re the sit-on-your-pissy-thumbs-and-not-vote sort, the bruise left behind will look like Mitt Romney.
You know it’s true: Mittens is no friend the poor, the middle class, or anything else that you as 0.00000001% of the 99% care about. He’s that same old GOP, you all remember that right? That particular haymaker from Captain Obvious will lay you out for quite a long while. Worse, if you manage to convince more disappointed people to piss on their thumbs too, that contusion could end up purpling into Ron Paul, Herman Cain, or Rick Perry. Those blows would probably be fucking fatal, so get your head right.
Also, can we stop with the kooky conspiracy theories about Obama and the DHS with their black helicopters and jack-booted thugs? Can we quit suggesting that the President is the evil mastermind behind any and all crackdowns upon OWS? Can we quit with the stupid fucking insinuations that Democrats and the POTUS condone police brutality? I mean, really? The Administration of the first black President of the United States doesn’t care about civil rights, excessive force, or police brutality?
Fatal police shootings and beatings, and allegations of torture to coerce confessions have lead the U.S. Department of Justice to launch investigations into local law enforcement across the country.
There were 52 criminal civil rights cases brought against law enforcement officers by the Justice Department last year, the highest amount of cases in since the agency began keeping record in 2000.
AG Holder didn’t spend all that effort weeding Bush’s Liberty University lawyers out — replacing them with attorneys with actual experience in Civil Rights cases — for nothing. Looks like the DOJ is more aggressive than ever with respect to pursuing prosecution for police brutality. It sucks for some that this fact doesn’t ring the Obama = Mubarak / Same as Bush bell for the Holier-than-Thou keyboard commandos, but there it is. Maybe I’m too cynical, but was concern over brutality in our ‘just now dawned on me’ police state this deep before OWS? For some, sure. For others, nah. It’s just another way to bash Obama.
Last Wednesday, in a GOS diary whose premise was that Democrats, by their silence, are complicit in police brutality, I posted a comment that included a link to a petition calling for an intensive investigation into police misconduct against the Occupy protesters at the White House’s ‘We The People’ platform. When I originally posted the link, the petition had 53 signatures. Guess how many more have signed on (as of this writing)?
Two. Wait, one of those is mine. So, really it’s just one. That’s right. Apart from me, just ONE.
Knock it off with the broad government is bad and the both parties are the same memes. First, it’s simply not true. Democrats have their problems, no doubt, but if you think they’ll do to you what the GOP will do, then you need to have your fluids checked. Second, fostering overall distrust in the government’s role as a force for good plays right into the hands of those who would oppress you. It’s just another friggin’ wedge — don’t give it to them.
If you care about police brutality, why is trying to shame Democrats more important, more worthy of effort than actually doing something about it? It’s a damned internet petition, a very low effort deal that, given it gets ample attention, will draw the attention of the executive branch. Can someone explain to me how bitching into the intertubes and depressing the enthusiasm of the base is a better idea?
Finally, while we’re talking OWS, I have to say that I’m glad to see some discussion on the OK, what now? front. The message has always been a little inchoate, and that was fine at first. In fact, I rather enjoy seeing the varying regionalism displayed in protests throughout the country. Tuition here, infrastructure there, education reform here, financial regulation there. Jobs, jobs, jobs. All good, but the overall message must be refined, must be clear, and must be accessible to all of the 99%. You can’t just say Down with special interest groups! Uh, dude? Unions are special interest groups. The NAACP and the ACLU are special interest groups. Do we not want them lobbying? Of course we do, and their influence should carry just as much weight as that of the Chamber of Commerce, right? Level that shit out, and make it fair.
If the OWS movement is to endure, I really think the ‘Phase 2’ or whatever people are calling it, needs to happen — and very soon. Right now, if recent polling is to be believed, the public is souring on the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and not because they disagree with the impetus of the protests:
I don’t think the bad poll numbers for Occupy Wall Street reflect Americans being unconcerned with wealth inequality. Polling we did in some key swing states earlier this year found overwhelming support for raising taxes on people who make over $150,000 a year. In late September we found that 73% of voters supported the ‘Buffett rule’ with only 16% opposed. And in October we found that Senators resistant to raising taxes on those who make more than a million dollars a year could pay a price at the polls. I don’t think any of that has changed–what the downturn in Occupy Wall Street’s image suggests is that voters are seeing the movement as more about the ‘Occupy’ than the ‘Wall Street.’ The controversy over the protests is starting to drown out the actual message.
Well, what’s the plan then? Making this thing OWS vs. The Police is FAIL on a grand scale, and I’m not down with it. Make no mistake, there have been an alarming number of incidents that require investigation with respect to police tactics, brutality, and excessive force — the most recent of which happening mere miles from my home (Sgt. Pepperspray’s Lonely Asshole’s Club Band). Ultimately, I’d agree that the semi-militarization of local/regional law enforcement entities under the auspices of the Patriot Act is extremely troubling, and should be investigated, specifically with hindering those powers/tactics in mind.
That said, I do not approve of broad brush condemnations of law enforcement. The great bulk of these folks are regular people trying to do their job in preserving the peace, protecting the public, and perhaps most importantly, protecting the protesters themselves. I don’t, and will never, excuse the bad shit. We’d do well to remember some of the good shit too:
Sitting against a wall in full dress uniform with his hands cuffed behind him, this is former Philadelphia police captain Ray Lewis being arrested during the Occupy Wall St protests.
The ex-cop was taking part in the demonstrations in New York when he was detained by fellow officers who put toughened plastic bands around his wrists and shoved him to the floor.
Startling footage posted on YouTube shows his uniform blending in with a dozen other officers – before they grab him and haul him away.
The Police are the 99% too.
Now, since everybody who’s anybody is doing it, here’s a few of the things I think OWS should focus on:
OCCUPY Campaign Finance Reform.
OCCUPY Filibuster Reform.
OCCUPY Redistricting Reform.
OCCUPY Corporate, for-profit Media Reform.
OCCUPY Elections/Voter Registration Fraud
Unless you favor tearing the whole country down and starting over, these are the things that need to be addressed. Nearly everything else is a symptom of one or more of these systemic problems. Then again, what do I know? I support the President, generally, so I’m a centrist apologist, right?
Say what you will, into the comments section with you.
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