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Company men: The U.S. Chamber flexes its new political muscle
cnn.com ^ | 7/22/14 | Peter Hamby

Posted on 07/22/2014 1:43:20 PM PDT by cotton1706

The plot to save Thad Cochran was hatched at Off The Record, the subterranean bar inside the Hay-Adams hotel in downtown Washington.

In mid-June, just days before the Mississippi Senate runoff election, Tom Donohue, the hard-nosed CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was commiserating over drinks with Scott Reed, his senior political strategist, and Chip Pickering, a former Mississippi congressman-turned-telecom lobbyist.

The trio were smarting. After racking up an enviable 10-0 winning streak in midterm races, Mississippi voters dealt the powerful business lobby a major blow: Cochran, a Senate stalwart supported by the Chamber and its allies in the Republican establishment, had stumbled in his primary battle with Chris McDaniel, a smooth-talking state senator backed by tea party groups. The two Republicans were now facing off in a three-week duel that, to many, looked like a lost cause. American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-backed GOP group that had been supporting Cochran, announced that it was pulling out of the race.

Making matters worse for Donohue and his colleagues, McDaniel was a hated trial attorney, a specimen Chamber-types have viewed with blood-curdling contempt.

A key element of the Chamber's playbook this cycle is tapping big-name endorsers to star in television commercials for their preferred candidates. Reed and Engstrom recruited Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio to appear in ads, but they've also looked beyond politics. In Georgia, they booked college football hero Herschel Walker to appear in an ad endorsing Kingston.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: chippickering; chrismcdaniel; elections; mississippi; scottreed; tomdonohue

1 posted on 07/22/2014 1:43:20 PM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

If the US Chamber of Commerce wants the credit for stealing that election, they can have it!


2 posted on 07/22/2014 1:50:57 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: cotton1706
The chamber really, really wants their cheap illegal labor, don't they.

So badly they're willing to blow up our representative republic to get it.

3 posted on 07/22/2014 2:03:58 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: cotton1706

I’ll never forgive these pecker-woods for what they did to Sarah Steelman of Missouri.


4 posted on 07/22/2014 2:28:24 PM PDT by donozark (The voices inside my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
The US Chamber of Commerce needs to change their name to the US Chamber of Government Commerce. They're all hot for politicians, who aren't afraid of the words: appropriations and earmarks. OK, we see what the Chamber's priorities are.

Second, they attack conservative/Tea Party types as people who want to blow up the Federal Government and shut the place down, while they pat themselves on the back with the comment "we care about governing".

There are two things wrong about this, conservatives and tea partiers don't what to blow up the federal government and they too are concerned about governing, indeed the long term trends are accelerating toward a collapse of the government and the economy.

That's what the Chamber calls governing, the rest of us call it recklessness on a scale never before seen in history. Somehow, the Chamber does not see this.

The liberals seek their dominance based on their belief that they are morally superior. The Chamber (and RINOs?) seek their dominance based on their belief they are smarter than the rest of us. Both sides join together and run the Federal Government and both sides are disasterously wrong.

Will we be able to collect from the Dem's and the Chamber after the collapse and hold them accountable. Nope, they'll both have already made off with all the plunder. They are destroying this country.

5 posted on 07/22/2014 2:41:56 PM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (You can have a free country or government schools. Choose one.)
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To: cotton1706

The US Chamber of Commerce feel they are entitled to their earmarks.


6 posted on 07/22/2014 2:54:10 PM PDT by hadaclueonce (Because Brawndo's got electrolytes. Because Ethanol has Big Corn Lobby)
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To: cotton1706

Domestic Enemies.


7 posted on 07/22/2014 2:55:41 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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