Posted on 11/07/2008 2:27:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer. Called the "Obama/Biden Transition Project," it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money.
Traditionally, the victorious campaign has set up inaugural funds, as well as funds to deal with legal costs and other expenses to close down the campaign. Others have set up quasi-corporate offices to deal with transition issues, such as in 2000, when, with the election in doubt, the Bush-Cheney team set up a private transition office in McLean, Virginia, covering the costs from campaign contributions and other fundraising. Ultimately, the federal government, headed by the Government Services Administration, covers the cost of the transition staff, providing it with office space and all equipment.
No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.
"To my knowledge, it's never been done, and people should be asking why the Obama people chose to do it this way," says a longtime Washington Republican, who has been involved in transitions for the Reagan and Bush campaign teams. According to an Obama campaign staffer who is being retained for the transition and inauguration planning, the "project" is intended not only to identify personnel for the Obama Administration, but to then send those project employees who know all of the senior staff in the various Cabinet departments and federal agencies out into the corporate and lobbying community to leverage those contacts.
"It's taking the old 'K Street Project' that Republicans had and doing it twice as fast and on steroids," explains the aide. "So, if you have a Project aide working on Commerce Department transition, that Project aide will be more likely to get a senior lobbying job because of all those connections at Commerce. That former Project aide will also be able raise more money for Democrats in this town and help others with jobs and such."
As well, the nonprofit may also serve as a haven for Obama supporters and campaign loyalists who for one reason or another can't be employed by the Administration or in the federal government. "There are some people who have been with us from the beginning who are clearly political liabilities or who won't be able to qualify for a job, say, because they can't get a security clearance," says another aide, who was unaware of the unique Obama transition project's tax status.
Regardless of the purpose, Obama campaign officials say there is no intention of shutting down the 501(c) 4 Project after the transition is over.
((Now looking to see how I can set up my own 501c4 and call it....W.ealth D.istribution T.ransition F.oundation... ;)
***A shadow administration with no oversight by anyone, answerable only to Obama. A perfect way to hide violations of federal law.***
Well said!
And with Soros’ money, no doubt.
This is what disturbs me most about Obama is how secretive he is.
I thought he was the great Uniter.
Obama is wasting no time in getting control of every facet of American life.
I doubt they wanted to lose. I just don’t think they know how to win. I think Palin does and I hope to see her back as a party leader very soon.
That is where the Civilian Security Force would step in.
So everyone else has to pay taxes but not “The One” with his tax exempt status with this group.
Think Code Pink.””
Think Wm Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn.
This is what disturbs me most about Obama is how secretive he is.”
He is still being secretive about his birth certificate, isn’t he??
Not only the same old politics it’s the same old politics X10.
Maybe the Democrats will corrupt themselves faster than those pond scum did, and the Republicans will at least appear to be less corrupt for long enough to regain control of congress.
We can all hope. /sarc
All I can think about is his pies. Shaking my head.
He’s secretive about everything and he seems to assume he is already President of the US. He still has to prove he is eligible and has to go through the electorial college.
Just three days after he’s elected, more Obama chicanery!
Alinsky lives.
But, don't you see? He is the Great Uniter.
Who, among us, I submit, has done more than He in the recent past to bring together those poor lost wandering souls among the ranks of Fabian socialists, anarchists, AFSCME union goons, Maoists, ex-Sandinista rebels, Upper West Side red diaper babies, sweaty basement bloggers, radical college professors with greasy gray ponytails who dropped the brown acid at Woodstock, North Korean apologists, Daily Kossacks, permanently-pissed dykes with checkered Palestinian scarves, Hollywood Bolsheviks and East Hampton trust-find collectivists who sip mocha lattes with unwashed and illiterate Greenwich Village poets who beg for spare change outside the 14th Street subway station?
E Pluribus Unum, baby.
bookmark
You are a poet & don’t know it.
Perhaps I'm off-base here, but to me this sounds a whole lot like Alinsky tactics. You can be sure that each of those "project employees" will be assuring their "leverage contacts" that they'll be getting special treatment.
If you look at Obama's family tree, you can see that he most definitely fits the definition!
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