The Democrats' Versailles Palace

American Prowler ^ | 3/25/02 | The Prowler

[Jean S]

FOX HOUNDS
After cashing the $7 million check Haim Saban wrote to the Democratic National Committee, party chairman Terry McAuliffe should also send a thank you note to News Corp. chairman and conservative Rupert Murdoch. "That's a lot of Murdoch's money we're getting," says a DNC fundraiser, laughing. Yeah, all the way to the bank.

Saban is the creator of kiddie TV shows like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Power Rangers," hallmark shows in the early years of the Fox Network (for more on this "cartoon baron," click here). Given their popularity with the after-school crowd, Murdoch and News Corp. have been paying Saban millions to keep his creations on the air and away from other networks. "Murdoch made Saban. Without him he'd be just another TV producer, and we'd be $7 million poorer," says the DNC moneyman.

Saban gave the DNC $7 million to help build the party's $40 million headquarters near Capitol Hill. McAuliffe intends to raise enough for the capital project so that he can pay for it in cash before possible campaign finance reforms kick in on November 6, 2002.


RIGHT TO PAY
Haim Saban isn't the only fat-walleted Democrat to pony up the dough for the DNC's new headquarters. Texas trial lawyer Fred Baron and Chicago business executive Fred Eychaner each cut McAuliffe $1 million checks, as did two unions, the Communications Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Despite the union donations, McAuliffe is currently considering nonunion construction bids for his political palace. In fact, while much of the heavy construction on the building will likely be undertaken by union workers, many of the smaller projects will be performed by nonunion work crews and contractors out of Virginia, a "right to work" state. "That's how we'll save some money," says another DNC staffer.


PARTY GUY
While DNC staffers credit Terry McAuliffe for raising much of the money for the new facility, they also say a great deal of credit belongs to Bill Clinton. "He made the calls, made the visits, especially with guys like Saban, who love him," says a DNC political staffer. "And Clinton loves working these guys over."

But, apparently, not without a price. A former aide to Clinton says the ex-prez would like to see some part of the new DNC headquarters named after him. "The William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium has a nice ring to it," says the former staffer. "He's raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the party, kept it afloat. He deserves to have his name somewhere on that building."

A Clinton staffer working on the presidential library project in Little Rock, Arkansas, says that Clinton has enough influence with men like Saban that he could have steered some of that $7 million to the library fund. "But he didn't. President Clinton will always think of the party first when it comes to things like this," says the aide. "Even if it means his library loses out a bit, he's willing to work hard for the party, not just himself." Saban has already donated more than $1 million to the Clinton Library

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

"But he didn't. President Clinton will always think of the party first when it comes to things like this," says the aide.

Anyone who thinks that Clinton thinks of anyone else other than himself is being delusional.

[Cicero]

Murdoch is only conservative when it suits his interest. As we saw last year, he kowtowed to China because his son had arranged a big business deal there. And keep in mind that, during the campaign, Murdoch himself supported Gore. He gave Terry McAuliffe several million dollars to pay all the expenses of the Democratic convention, and he used the Times of London to bash Bush as a foreign-policy moron right up until election day. The conservative writers at the NY Post were harder for him to rein in, but he did noticeably subdue them during the campaign.

I believe his motive was that clinton used the regulatory agencies to screw him and block mergers, and he didn't want to see eight more years of that under Gore.

The day after the election, Murdoch switched sides back to Bush. Evidently he decided that Gore would lose the chad count and he had better mend fences with Bush. But he is not nearly as consistent in his conservatism as most of the other press barons are in their liberalism.