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07/29/2004:

"Democrats hail working stiffs, but party on corporations' tab *"

by Mark Sandalow San Francisco Chronicle
Boston -- From the podium of the FleetCenter, Democrats talk righteously about the struggle of working families and decry the plight of the forgotten middle class.

In the streets of Boston, conventioneers feast on boiled lobster tails and fine sparkling wine. full article

by Mark Gongloff cnn.com
This convention brought to you by...
More than 125 companies, unions and private foundations, including some 50 members of the Fortune 500, will pump at least $103.5 million into the conventions of both major U.S. political parties this year, thanks to new election rules that help big donors skirt campaign finance limits.

That amount of money, which does not include the cost of various soirees thrown for politicians and delegates of both parties, will dwarf the amount spent in, say, 1980, when both conventions enjoyed private donations of a mere $1.1 million, according to a study by the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research institute affiliated with George Washington University. full article

Billings (Montana) Gazette
Gas group plans party for Baucus, delegation
Members of the Montana delegation to the Democratic Party Convention will be treated to a good time thanks to Sen. Max Baucus' leadership position in the Senate.

On Monday night, the American Gas Association will give a party in Boston's wealthy Beacon Hill neighborhood to honor the senator and the state's delegation.

While Baucus aides and association representatives say it will be a fun and harmless event, Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance reform group Democracy 21, says it represents a corruption of the political process.

Under congressional ethics rules, lawmakers are not permitted to receive gifts or financial favors with a value more than a "de minimis" amount. The party for Baucus and the delegation does not violate this rule because it technically is not a gift or a financial favor, but rather a party in his "honor." full article

A guy on ABC news said tonight:‘Conventions are the big honey pot for special interests.’ While Ted Kennedy is ranting and raving about corporate special interests inn his speech on the convention floor, a few blocks away Sen. Tom Harkin and others are at a giant liquor-sodden 'Caribbean' bash, complete with colorful cocktails, steel bands, and ‘voodoo dancers,’ thrown by 20 major corporations looking, a spokesman says, for ‘regulatory relief.’ At least Republicans don't front; they don't pretend to be anti-corporate populists.

Here’s Nader’s description:
I would like to see the bazaar. I'd like to see the alcoholic-musical-political payoff bazaar of accounts receivable."