Posted on 04/18/2009 4:04:48 PM PDT by STARWISE
Obama for America spends nearly $9.5 million in the first three months of this year.
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If you glanced at the expense side of the report filed Wednesday night by President Obama's campaign committee, you might be excused for thinking there was a presidential election afoot.
Obama for America, the fundraising juggernaut that powered Obama's ascent to the presidency, spent nearly $9.5 million in the first three months of this year, including $684,000 on telemarketing and print and online advertising, $994,000 on event staging and $310,000 on payroll and taxes.
To be sure, some of the payments stem from bills accrued in early January — or even the end of last year — before Obama took the oath of office, and others come from normal shut-down costs. Plus the campaign committee is no longer raising money; it came into the year with $18.3 million in the bank and finished the first quarter with $10 million on hand.
Yet the report shows that Obama's campaign continued to be of use well after Election Day and suggests it still maintains some semblance of operational capacity.
Last month alone, it paid $74,000 in payroll, $23,000 for rent, $10,000 for polling and $6,400 for travel.
Other interesting payments during the first three months of the year, the period covered by Wednesday's report, included $688,000 in legal fees to the firm of Bob Bauer — the top lawyer for the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama political group Organizing for America, and the Obama family — and $6,400 to a firm founded by Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
The report also shows that Obama for America contributed $4 million to the DNC in a pair of contributions in February and March, and refunded $16,700 in contributions to individual donors.
At the end of last month, it was carrying $329,000 in debt, including $15,300 to the former firm of White House political guru David Axelrod.
the top lawyer for the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama political group Organizing for America, and the Obama family...
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The president of the United States is threatening sanctions – and the word “sanctions” is used in the threat -- against attorney John Hemenway. Read on.]
After the flippant dismissal by U.S. Circuit Court Judge James Robertson of the lawsuit to attempt to determine whether Barack Obama is constitutionally eligible to serve as President, D.C. attorney John Hemenway received a letter from a lawyer representing Barack Obama and Joe Biden, his Vice President. (Hemenway had joined the suit launched by Hillary Clinton's ally, Philip Berg, the former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania and attorney Lawrence Joyce of Arizona, in an attempt to force President Obama to disclose his birth records, currently being protected against public scrutiny by the Obama legal team at a reported cost of as much as one million dollars.)
The entire letter , written by Obama attorney Robert F. Bauer, states the following (and we note that there is no reference in this letter to an existing valid Birth Certificate for Barack Obama, as opposed to a Certificate of Live Birth, and there is no claim that a valid Birth certificate exists which can be shown to the American people, an act that immediately would shut down this query):
“I represent President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden. I write to request that, in light of the District Court’s March 24, 2009 Rule 11 order in Hollister v. Soetoro, No. 08-2254, you withdraw the appeal filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, No. 09-5080. For the reasons stated in Judge Robertson’s order, the suit is frivolous and should not be pursued.
Should you decline to withdraw this frivolous appeal, please be informed that we intend to pursue sanctions, including costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees, pursuant to federal Rule Appellate Procedure 38 and D.C. Circuit Rule 38.”
Mr. Hemenway's response to the letter was a promise to "write and protest and attack those against the demand that Obama show proof of his birth, and I will continue to do anything I can think of doing that might perhaps deter or injure those who are opposed to “transparency” and “openness” and honesty in governmental operations—all those good and vague promises that Obama threw out in speeches read from his teleprompter."
Mr. Hemenway added, "The lawyer for Obama, Robert Bauer, has abused his privileges as an attorney, because I can regard his premature (and totally inaccurate) threats to seek some sanction against me as a threat to keep me from performing my duty to my client.
It won’t work and he will soon see that it has not worked to intimidate me." In his opinion, "many judges and other officials are simply crassly violating their oaths of office.
Since I had been in the Department of State and served in Moscow for two years, I am mindful of an expression used by the Russians: “Nada dakazat’ kulak!” (You must show them your fist!)"
Hemenway also pledged:
“…to appeal the slap taken at me (the so-called “reprimand”) by Judge James Robertson who tried unsuccessfully to label our efforts as “frivolous” but who did not have the guts to sanction me under Rule 11. (This would have given me—and others engaged in this important battle —standing in the Court of Appeals.) I will do my duty to Colonel Hollister, who technically is a client, even though I never agreed initially to follow the case in the Court of Appeals.
The military, as Colonel Hollister's interest demonstrates, is quite concerned with the basic issue of ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ orders originating from a ‘legitimate’ or ‘illegitimate’ commander-in-chief. Recall that Judge Robertson never did admit attorneys Berg or Joyce to practice in his court, never had a hearing and never examined evidence because he didn't seek any.
The Judge gave the impression that his decision was predicated solely on ‘blogging and twittering’.“
~~~
~~DING!
He’s a little pissant............
Is there a judge that is not intimidated by this obvious fraud?? The sheer fact that Obama will NOT PROVE his eligibility is testimony to his fraud. And look at how much of OUR MONEY he is spending to hide his true birth identity. His first attempt at providing fraudulent (fake) documents was quickly uncovered.
And WHY has the SCOTUS refused to hear any of the numerous cases put before on this matter? How much complicity is there in this cover-up?? And all these people took an oath swearing to UPHOLD AND PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION.
So, if that’s the amount he has spent on just ONE lawyer, for just ONE case it looks like the comment of “SPENT MILLIONS” is pretty dang accurate after all, isn’t it?
How many cases name him specifically — it’s easy to do that math, and that’s just what he’s spent in the last 3-5 months. These cases began almost a YEAR ago!
I think they’re possibly lumping in his legal services, so I don’t see clarity on the amount for the eligibility suits.
Most of that for online trolling against Conservative politicians like Sarah Palin, as any Youtube or news paper comment board will attest.
The never ending campaign .. and it will go on until 2013.
Bob Bauer, as the Democratic Party’s new lawyer, will have unmatched power in Democratic legal circles.
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President Barack Obama has installed his personal and political attorney, Bob Bauer, as the Democratic Party’s new lawyer, a move that gives Bauer unmatched power in Democratic legal circles and marks him as a top behind-the-scenes player in the president’s inner circle.
In addition to representing Obama in personal matters, such as the federal investigation of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and political matters stemming from Obama’s presidential campaign, Bauer will also play that role for Obama’s new political network, Organizing for America, and the Democratic National Committee, which is administering the network.
The added work will mean a big pay day for Bauer, a leading election lawyer known for his shrewd but confrontational style, and his law firm, Perkins Coie, which becomes the preeminent Democratic firm. It already represents the Democrat’s Senate and House campaign committees.
It has reaped nearly $1.5 million in payments from Obama’s presidential campaign and an earlier political group since Bauer started representing Obama in 2005.
The move also completes the reshaping of the DNC in Obama’s image, a process that saw Obama allies take the reins at the highest levels of the party – including new chairman Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and new executive director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, formerly a top Obama campaign aide.
Perhaps the closest recent parallel to Bauer’s broad reach is Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg. In 2000, he was counsel for the Bush-Cheney campaign and in the Florida recount, then for Bush’s effort at a post-election political network, Progress for America. But he did not serve as the top outside lawyer for the Republican National Committee at the time.
Bauer brushed off questions about whether there’s precedence for a single political attorney having such broad influence. And he asserted that his many hats did not pose a potential conflict, because "in representing the president, his campaign organization, and the DNC, I am representing his interests as a Democratic president and leader of his party."
But the confluence of duties could pose something of a challenge, because of potentially overlapping needs of his clients and because of his reputation for pushing the bounds of campaign finance law.
Over the years, he has expressed skepticism about the implementation and enforcement of campaign finance rules and sued the Federal Election Commission on behalf of a client challenging the commission’s restrictions on so-called “soft money.” Obama, on the other hand, has cast himself as an ardent supporter of stricter campaign finance rules. And the DNC this month sought permission to fight a Republican lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of soft money restrictions.
Bauer, representing the DNC, in a recent court filing in the matter alleged that Republicans are "callously attempting to dismantle needed reforms to make up for their fundraising deficiencies."
The DNC’s stance jibed with the concerns of advocates for stricter campaign rules, who worked closely with Obama during his days in the Senate and maintain high hopes he’ll champion their agenda as president.
Yet, they also blasted candidate Obama for a campaign maneuver in which Bauer played a central role: Obama’s reversal of a pledge to participate in the public financing system if his Republican opponent agreed to do the same.
Campaign finance advocates predicted the move likely killed the system, which was intended to reduce the role of big-money in politics, but it also gave Obama a huge cash advantage over his Republican rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who accepted the $84 million public grant and its spending limits.
In explaining Obama’s decision to opt out of the system, Bauer claimed McCain’s top lawyer, Trevor Potter, rebuffed efforts to negotiate an agreement under which the two candidates would both participate in the system.
But Potter, rejected that characterization, alleging Bauer never tried to negotiate a deal.
Obama has pledged to fix the system as president. But Bauer in a 2005 post on his influential blog, suggested efforts to fix the system face tough prospects because public “support is needed and not forthcoming.”
It would be a good thing if Bauer convinced Obama to proceed cautiously on campaign finance reforms, said Brad Smith, a former FEC chairman who now heads the anti-regulation Center for Competitive Politics. He praised Bauer as “an exceptionally skilled lawyer” and asserted he “understands many of the ways in which campaign finance reform has failed.”
In many ways, Bauer’s role in Obama’s presidential campaign transcended the traditional general counsel role. He helped craft lines of attack and once famously ambushed a press conference call held by rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign to challenge her campaign’s accusations that Obama supporters violated caucus rules.
Bauer’s wife, Anita Dunn, was also a top adviser to Obama’s campaign.
http://www.perkinscoie.com/rbauer/
Pay for play on the part of Robert (Bob) Bauer and the Political Law Group of Perkins Coie LLP:
http://www.campaignmoney.com/finance.asp?type=io&cycle=08&criteria=Perkins+Coie+LLP
"Plus the campaign committee is no longer raising money; it came into the year with $18.3 million in the bank and finished the first quarter with $10 million on hand.
In essence, as of March 31st, it had $10 million on hand. Yet reading further it states:
"At the end of last month, it was carrying $329,000 in debt, including $15,300 to the former firm of White House political guru David Axelrod.
Aren't they reporting the same time period, i.e., March 31, 2009 yet with different results?
688K VS 20.00 for a certified copy....
Boy our we screwed if this is any indication of anymore future economic policies
“The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy.”
Theodore H. White
Talk about bitter clinger, huh ?
No one, no one, can cover ALL of their tracks the way he has without a great deal of conspiratorial help.
Obama's Campaign paid $688,000 to attorney who threatened sanctions in eligibility lawsuit
| 04/18/2009 | Polarik
Looks like they just haven’t paid those bills to me.
I still get emails from barackobama.com asking for donations and it’s been averaging about once a week since election day. You would think that would have ended with the election but it didn’t.
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