Posted on 09/27/2008 7:41:51 AM PDT by dirtboy
Edited on 09/27/2008 11:25:52 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
It’s normal for a father to want to give his children every advantage in life. But when you are a Democratic Senator, that position can provide some unique opportunities to help the kids get ahead. Especially if the Senator in question is ethically challenged to begin with.
When Joe Biden was chosen to be Barack Obama’s running mate, the allegedly untainted-by-lobbyists Obama campaign suddenly had some ‘splaining to do about how Joe Biden’s son Hunter made his living
The younger Biden started his career as a lobbyist in 2001 and has registered to represent about 21 clients that have brought in $3.5 million to his Washington firm, according to lobbying disclosure forms… A spokesman for the Obama campaign said that Hunter Biden himself has never lobbied his father. Another lobbyist in the firm successfully sought an earmark from the senator for the University of Delaware. But Hunter did not work on the account, the spokesman said.
Isn’t that special? To make sure there was no lobbying hanky-panky going on, Joe didn’t meet with his son, he instead met with someone else from his son’s lobbying firm … for an earmark. A real pillar of integrity, that Joe.
But Hunter didn’t just use his family name to cash in as a lobbyist … he also had been a contractor for Delaware-based credit card issuer MBNA:
During the years that Sen. Joe Biden was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son received more than $400,000 in consulting fees from one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign said Sunday.
Biden's son, Hunter, received the fees from MBNA Corp. from 2001 to 2005 for consulting work on online banking issues. Aides to Obama, who announced Biden as his vice-presidential running mate on Saturday, said the younger Biden, who is a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, never lobbied for MBNA and that there was nothing improper about the payments.
Biden's support for the bankruptcy changes, signed into law in 2005, puts him at odds with Obama of Illinois, who opposed the bill and has criticized the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for supporting it.
Now, $100,000/year is not outrageous pay for a contractor’s gig … except that, during that time, we’ve already seen that Hunter was starting his lobbying career. So one has to wonder why MBNA was paying that kind of money to a part-timer … and they quit paying as soon as the bankruptcy bill had passed.
And it wasn't like the Obama campaign was unaware of Hunter's lobbying activies, as Hunter had lobbied Obama himself for earmarks.
When Hunter’s lobbying activities finally became impossible for the MSM to spin away, Hunter threw himself under the bus for the Obama campaign. But Hunter could afford to quit lobbying, he had already diversified into hedge funds … and landed himself and Joe Biden’s brother in a nasty lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s other son, Beau, is a rising star in Delaware politics, having been elected Attorney General in 2007 (I’m sure having a last name of Biden had NOTHING to do with it). Prior to winning that election, Beau had gone from a stint as a federal prosecutor to a partnership in the newly-formed Wilmington law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, specializing in asbestos torts. And Dad was more than glad to help the new law firm get started.
The senator has longstanding relationships with law firms that donated to his congressional races and his two bids for the White House. Top contributors for his recent run were the Law Office of Peter Angelos in Baltimore, Maryland, which donated $156,250; SimmonsCooper in East Alton, Illinois contributed $146,600; Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones in Wilmington gave $145,625; and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington gave $127,979.
Many of those firms have handled asbestos and bankruptcy cases, issues Biden has weighed in on from his seat on the judicial committee. Biden was a critic of the failed Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution (FAIR) Act of 2005, which would have trimmed returns on future litigation and hurt firms like SimmonsCooper, a billion dollar asbestos practice which used son Beau’s former law firm, Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick (now Bifferato Gentilotti), as local counsel to file asbestos suits in Delaware. Angelos’ firm also represents asbestos clients, and Stargatt & Taylor has handled mass tort asbestos cases, representing court-appointed advocates for unknown future claimants–individuals representing people who have been exposed to asbestos but have not yet become sick.
Yep, Dad not only protected the core line of business, but one of his largest donors just happened to hire the new firm as legal counsel in Delaware suits. Purely a coincidence, I’m sure.
All this just goes to show that there are unlimited ways for Democratic elected officials to enrich themselves and their family members. As for us working stiffs, there is only one option available to deal with such antics – vote the parasitic bums out.
Next- the Harry Reid family lobby dynasty ...
“It’s good to be the King!”
Really need to turn up the wick on Biden. There is very little press on his boys the lobbyists.
Politics of Personal Enrichment ping. Please freepmail me if you want on or off this informal ping list.
Excellent post! Thanks for the ping. Praying that at some point before November the American people wake up!!
The Democrats have just perpetrated the biggest scam in the history of the United States and it threatens the entire global economy...yet the media in this country thinks it is all perfectly OK!
I wake up every moning these days thinking of how close we truly are to becoming a communist country!
A ping list you may be interested in.
The Politics of Personal Enrichment – A Proposed Free Republic Team Project
The Politics of Personal Enrichment: Chris Dodd - Countrywide's Sweetheart
Thanks for the ping!
Thank you.
//
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2091792/posts
George Soros, Maurice Strong and company redefine the Middleclass (Must read)
Canada Free Press ^ | September 26, 2008 | Judi McLeod
And wasn’t Beau Biden instrumental in having Larry Sinclair arrested just before Obama picked Joe as his running mate?
Harry Reid operates the same way. If you want to talk to him, you slip his son a check for $300 thousand.
Biden, Reid. Same thing.
Dirty Harry will be covered in a future installment. When I have a good 6-8 hours to untangle the web of deceipt and corruption.
Bump for later read.
Nice job——great research. Thanks for the headsup.
Dirtboy, there’s an amazing amount of researched information here. I like the way you have connected the dots and then presented a cogent summary. This is an eyeopening excellent article. Congratulations!
Bump!
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