Posted on 10/15/2005 5:47:40 PM PDT by blam
Bono incensed as Hillary plays politics at U2 gig
By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 16/10/2005)
The Irish rock star, Bono, has been angered by Senator Hillary Clinton's use of a U2 concert this week to raise funds for her political campaign coffers - even though he is a good friend of her husband, Bill.
"U2 concerts are categorically not fund-raisers for any politician. They are rock concerts for U2 fans," said his close associate, Jamie Drummond, who runs Data, the Third World advocacy group set up by Bono with Sir Bob Geldof.
"If any political fund-raising events take place at a U2 concert, it is without the involvement or knowledge of Data, U2 or Bono."
Mrs Clinton, the frontrunner to be the Democrat candidate for the White House in 2008, is charging 18 guests $2,500 (£1,400) a head to join her in a luxury box for the sold out show in Washington on Wednesday. Despite U2's public criticism, she is pressing on with the fund-raiser, which will bring in $45,000 for an outlay of about $7,000 on the box, and her staff are unapologetic.
"We do a meet-and-greet with the senator and then go in and listen to the music," said her spokesman, Ann Lewis.
Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican senator and critic of Mrs Clinton, is also taking advantage of a U2 concert, tomorrow night in Philadelphia, to raise funds.
He has block-booked 66 tickets which he is selling for $1,000 each and his aides said that he too would go ahead with the fund-raiser. Although Bono decided to make no direct comment of his own, he saw Mr Drummond's critical statement before it was issued.
The complaint was an unusually public criticism of the growing trend in American political fund-raising of using access to sold-out concerts and sports events to woo wealthy contributors. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California and former Terminator star, charged donors $100,000 each to share a private box with him for a Rolling Stones concert.
The rebuke for Mrs Clinton is all the more striking as Bono has worked closely with her husband, the former president, on issues such as increasing aid to Africa, relieving the debt of the world's poorest countries and HIV/Aids projects. He has also co-operated closely with President George W Bush and Tony Blair.
Mrs Clinton is in California this weekend for a series of celebrity-hosted Hollywood fund-raisers. The director Rob Reiner hosted a $500-a-person reception on Friday evening and yesterday it was the turn of the producer Bruce Cohen (who won an Oscar for American Beauty) to throw a $1,000-a-head brunch.
The former First Lady is a prodigious fund-raiser. She has already collected $12.5 million for her Senate re-election campaign, of which $6 million poured in over the past three months.
Other potential 2008 Democrat presidential candidates, including 2004 loser John Kerry, have also been swinging through Hollywood as the traditionally liberal bastion recovers from its depression at last year's defeat - spurred on by recent setbacks suffered by the Bush administration. "Donors are as motivated now as I've ever seen them," said the Democrat political consultant Chad Griffin.
The Clintons remain the biggest Democrat draw in Hollywood. But a gala fund-raiser in 2000 attended by the likes of Cher and Diana Ross for Mrs Clinton's Senate battle came back to haunt her as her finance manager was accused of breaking campaign funding rules. He was recently acquitted, but the involvement of a convicted felon in organising the event raised questions about how the Clinton camp vets donors.
The buzz about a possible Clinton run for the presidency increased last week with the publication of two books predicting success for her in 2008.
In one, Susan Estrich, a friend of the Clintons, is a strong cheerleader for the ex-First Lady; in the other, Dick Morris, a former aide to her husband, says she would be a disaster and argues that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, should be drafted to thwart her.
I guess ticket skalping is legal in Wash DC.
Why not pro bono?
Another "Captain Jack" moment......
Gosh, I am shocked that Hillary's name was in the headline, but even Santorum is doing the same thing...usually it is reversed..
The people that pay that amount of money have more dollars than sense anyway.
Welcome to the club, Bono. You just got "Clintoned."
Darn. Guess we'll just have to grin and bear it.
Pass the popcorn, please.
And he is right, neither Santorum nor Hillary should do such.
Well Bono can kiss his butt goodbye...anyone who 'disagrees with the clinton slime' don't continue to make it in the real world...ie: Vince Foster; Jennifer Flowers; etc....
Since he is still alive he only received the second rate Clintooning"
--Casey Kasem, famed "bad day at the office" tape
Bono clearly doesn't understand the Clintons.But then,who can blame him? In order to understand them,one has delve into the deepest depths of human depravity,something that very few do today.
Hey, be careful, that casts a cloud over us, opportunists....8^)
No person may donate money or anything else of value to a candidate in a federal election unless the person making the donation is legally registered to vote for the candidate.
Off goes the TV whenever she comes on.....and that goes for Hannity when he interviews on on his radio show.
From time to time,Imus plays a tape similar to this of Kasem berating somebody in the booth about a letter that he got from one of his little teenie bopper listeners.
Got news for ya, Bono ol' boy...Hillary cares about one person and one person only: herself. Everyone else is a distant second. And Her Royal Crustiness she doesn't give a good rip if she has to lie, cheat, steal, leave the toilet seat up, or kill to get what she wants.
She got what she wanted, Bono. And no, she doesn't care that it bothers you. Remember, she considers herself entitled to take things from you "for the common good."
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