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The Obama-Biden pork partnership

The Washington Post peeks into the sausage-making aspects of Capitol Hill legislating, and discovers that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a longer partnership than first thought. Obama pursued over $3 million in earmarks for Biden’s son, at the same time that Biden claims he didn’t get personally lobbied by Hunter Biden for his clients. Obama apparently provided the necessary cover for his wingman:

Obama, Biden's Son Linked by Earmarks

Candidate Got Funding for Nursing Program

By James V. Grimaldi and Kimberly Kindy

Washington Post Staff Writers

Wednesday, August 27, 2008; Page A16

Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, records show. Obama succeeded in getting $192,000 for one of the clients, St. Xavier University in suburban Chicago.

Obama's campaign has taken a hard stance against the world of lobbying in the nation's capital. Obama said he limits his own efforts to get money for pet projects -- a process known as earmarking -- to those that benefit the public. He has posted his earmark requests on his presidential campaign Web site to encourage transparency.

Since Obama announced his selection of Biden on Saturday, attention has focused on Biden's lobbying connections as well as his son's lobbying activities. R. Hunter Biden is one of many relatives of members of Congress who work as lobbyists.

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.

Sen. Biden has collected more than $6.9 million in campaign contributions from lobbyists and lawyers since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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.

Campaign spokesman David Wade also said Hunter Biden never appealed directly to Obama.

"Hunter Biden met with the Obama Senate office, not with Senator Obama," Wade said. "It's hardly surprising that a Senator from Illinois would fight for investments in Mercy Hospital, Thorek Hospital and St. Xavier University right in Illinois, or that he'd be joined in that effort by a Republican colleague, Representative Judy Biggert."

Hunter Biden, a 38-year-old Georgetown graduate and Yale-trained lawyer, is a name partner in the firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair, founded by William Oldaker, an election lawyer and lobbyist who worked on Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign and has been a fundraiser and campaign adviser for Sen. Biden.

An analysis for The Washington Post by Taxpayers for Common Sense of Hunter Biden's firm's lobbying business found that its clients collected $2.7 million in earmarks in the last fiscal year.

One of those clients was St. Xavier University, a four-year, 5,600-student institution run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy in Orland Park, Ill. Steve Murphy, vice president for university advancement, said Hunter Biden approached him in 2005 offering to secure congressional earmarks.

Hunter Biden and his colleague, Eric Schwerin, told Murphy they were "working with a number of clients, institutions like yours, and we would like to help you identify earmarks, federal support and grants."

Murphy said he found Biden's parentage a selling point. Murphy then accompanied Biden to the offices of the Illinois delegation, including Obama's.

Obama requested $1.4 million for St. Xavier, including $900,000 to establish an early-childhood teacher training center "to meet the demand in the southwest Chicago metropolitan area," according to a news release on the Web site of Obama's Senate office. Obama requested the early-childhood money in both 2006 and 2007.

Obama also in June 2007 sought $500,000 for a skills laboratory for St. Xavier's nursing school, which has one of the largest nursing programs in the state.

In the end, Obama's $1.4 million in requests resulted in $192,000 for the nursing facility.

Murphy said that a big selling point was the diversity of the nursing students, who often ended up working in communities where nurses were in shortage.

"Two years ago, we graduated more African American and Hispanic nurses than any private college in the state of Illinois," Murphy said. "I'm not at all apologetic that we asked for federal support for huge health-care needs of this growing community."

Since Hunter Biden signed St. Xavier as a client in December 2005, the firm has earned $320,000 from the university.

In 2006, Obama also asked for $2 million for a cancer research treatment center at Chicago's Thorek Memorial Hospital, according to an Obama letter requesting the money posted on Obama's campaign Web site. Hunter Biden was the registered lobbyist and his firm was paid $120,000 for representing Thorek, which has not received funding.

Obama's spokesman also acknowledged lobbying for Mercy Hospital, another client of Hunter Biden.

In addition to his work for universities, Hunter Biden has done consulting work for MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware.

From 2001 to 2005, Hunter was paid an undisclosed amount by the credit card giant, which has since been purchased by Bank of America. It has been widely reported that he received $100,000 a year.

At the time, Sen. Biden led a successful, high-profile battle in the Senate for a bankruptcy bill that ultimately benefited credit card companies. The law makes it more difficult for people to file for personal bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7.

"He was a crucial supporter of the law in that he paved the way for other Democrats to support it," said Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Foundation of America, a consumer group that opposed the bill. "Senator Biden provided a lot of political cover for the credit card industry because they wanted to show that the proposal had bipartisan support. He aggressively undermined the opposition to the bill."

Over the past two decades, MBNA employees have given more than $200,000 to Biden's Senate campaigns, more than workers from any other company.

Wade said Hunter Biden was hired by MBNA after working as a Commerce Department lawyer on Internet privacy and online commerce issues. "Hunter consulted for five years as an expert on these very same issues at a time of enormous expansion in online banking," Wade said. "He was never a lobbyist for MBNA, and his work had absolutely nothing to do with the bankruptcy bill. Zero. Nothing."

Hunter Biden also lobbied for Napster, the music-sharing Web site that ran afoul of intellectual-property laws. Sen. Biden at the time was a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees laws governing intellectual-property rights.

Wade said Hunter Biden is careful not to approach his father when lobbying. Wade said the younger Biden does not share in revenue of other partners, so he does not directly benefit from their activities.

When he introduced him as his running mate, Obama said of Biden: "He has brought change to Washington, but Washington hasn't changed him." But Republicans quickly attacked Biden's connections to lobbyists.

"While Barack Obama decries Washington insiders and says that he detests lobbyists, Joe Biden is the model Washington insider with numerous connections to lobbyists and special interests," Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz said.

Wade defended Biden, saying he has been "as strong a supporter of ethics reform as the Senate has ever known, and his office follows all ethics laws right down to the letter."

Research editor Alice Crites and database editor Sarah Cohen contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8082603894.html

Their investment in Hunter Biden’s salary has paid large dividends. With so many friends among his father’s colleagues, Hunter didn’t need to meet with Dad to score pork for his clients. It’s a sterling example of how members of Congress offer hypocritical sanctimony on their relations with lobbyists while ensuring that family and friends get their share from the public trough.

One particularly interesting case involves a private Catholic university. Democrats insist that school vouchers for urban parents would violate the Constitution because the parents might choose to send their children to parochial schools. However, since Hunter Biden signed St. Xavier University, a four-year, 5,600-student institution run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy in Orland Park, IL as a client, he has managed to secure them over $300,000 in federal grants. Hunter specifically landed St. Xavier U after telling them he could get them government pork.

This is the kind of activity against which Barack Obama inveighs on the campaign trail. While in the Senate, though, he enables it through these kind of quid pro quo arrangements that give the appearance that Biden has no conflict of interest. In contrast, John McCain doesn’t do earmarks at all — not for himself, not for his friends, and not for his political allies.

One candidate talks the talk, and one candidate walks the walk. The former picked a porker who took almost $7 million from lobbyists and lawyers over the last 20 years, sources which this candidate has demonized for months on the stump. The latter wants to end the practice altogether and promises a confrontation with both parties in Congress if elected. Which candidate will actually try to bring change to Washington?

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/08/27/the-...rk-partnership/

[arnaldoabru 11]

I can't believe "achmed"! He had the audacity of hope to get financial help from the government for such things as:

-early childhood education- those little 4 year old bastads can play in the street like I did

-money for the University's nursing school program- who needs qualified nuses any way. Just give me the ones in them real short skirts

- and the biggest shock of all- CANCER RESEARCH- he buddy, you knew abesto's was dangerous when you started that that job.

[CCTAU 3,369]

I can't believe "achmed"! He had the audacity of hope to get financial help from the government for such things as:

-early childhood education- those little 4 year old bastads can play in the street like I did

-money for the University's nursing school program- who needs qualified nuses any way. Just give me the ones in them real short skirts

- and the biggest shock of all- CANCER RESEARCH- he buddy, you knew abesto's was dangerous when you started that that job.

You are typical librul. You think that throwing money at something will fix it. More money has been spent on all of those things over the last 8 years. The problem with education is that your friends the AEA continues to piss away the money for the kids on other things. But that is why they vote dim, to get more money.

Nursing is hard. See above explanation as to why we don't have enough qualified candidates for nursing.

Once again. More money for cancer research than ever.

We need less spending and more accountability.

Accountability? Wow, that is a dim dirty word. I hope the mods don't censor me.

[arnaldoabru 11]

I can't believe "achmed"! He had the audacity of hope to get financial help from the government for such things as:

-early childhood education- those little 4 year old bastads can play in the street like I did

-money for the University's nursing school program- who needs qualified nuses any way. Just give me the ones in them real short skirts

- and the biggest shock of all- CANCER RESEARCH- he buddy, you knew abesto's was dangerous when you started that that job.

You are typical librul. You think that throwing money at something will fix it. More money has been spent on all of those things over the last 8 years. The problem with education is that your friends the AEA continues to piss away the money for the kids on other things. But that is why they vote dim, to get more money.

Nursing is hard. See above explanation as to why we don't have enough qualified candidates for nursing.

Once again. More money for cancer research than ever.

We need less spending and more accountability.

Accountability? Wow, that is a dim dirty word. I hope the mods don't censor me.

Absolutly. When are they going to start that bridge in Alaska?