What, me worry? I'M PAID!
I don't know about you, but I got myself a nice case of Clinton fatigue brewing up inside of me. The ignorant/naive side of me has been all "Make a damn decision already," in regards to this whole will she or won't she take on the role of Secretary of State in Obama's cabinet, without taking the time to realize that it just might not be that easy. Thomas B. Edsall over at The Huffington Post reports:
It would be interesting to know how the average New York voter would respond when told that during the past three years their Senator and her spouse personally received $2.1 million from such major banks as Goldman Sachs ($800,000), Lehman Bros. ($300, 000), Citigroup ($425,000) and Deutsche Bank ($300,000).
The money -- honoraria payments to former President Clinton -- demonstrate that the conflicts between Bill Clinton's multi-million dollar financial entanglements and his wife's possible selection as Secretary of State are just as relevant in the case of the elected office Hillary Clinton currently holds, raising to front and center the same glaring conflicts of interest that have gone largely overlooked during Hillary's eight years in the Senate...The money -- honoraria payments to former President Clinton -- demonstrate that the conflicts between Bill Clinton's multi-million dollar financial entanglements and his wife's possible selection as Secretary of State are just as relevant in the case of the elected office Hillary Clinton currently holds, raising to front and center the same glaring conflicts of interest that have gone largely overlooked during Hillary's eight years in the Senate...According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Senator Clinton has not only received campaign contributions from the investment and securities industries -- industries with huge stakes in the outcome of measures almost certain to be taken up in 2009-10 -- but Bill and Hillary together have also taken as personal income, for their own use, millions of dollars paid to Bill in the form of honoraria, running from $125,000 to $325,000 for a single speech to interest groups directly affected by his wife's legislative position. The Clintons are not alone in the practice, but they have raised the stakes to unprecedented heights. In 2006, for example, Joe Lieberman's wife spoke to the Jewish Community Relations Council in Philadelphia, the Jewish Federation of Central Alabama, and the Junior League of Dayton making a total of $34,000 --- chump change compared to the $10,232,000 (yes, that's ten million+) Bill Clinton made in honoraria the same year.
Looking just at the finance industry over the past three years, in 2007 three major investment banking firms -- Goldman Sachs, Lehman Bros. and Citigroup - already on center stage in the financial downturn, each paid Bill Clinton $150,000, for a total of $450,000, for single speeches to company officials and their guests. The year before that, 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association, Citigroup and Lehman paid Clinton a total of $600,000. In 2005, Deutsche Bank paid $300,000 for two speeches; Goldman Sachs paid $525,000 for three appearances in Paris, Greensboro, Ga. and Kiawah Island, S.Car. In 2004, Bill Clinton's honoraria included $250,000 from Citigroup and $125,000 from Goldman Sachs.
This $2.25 million does not include payments to Bill Clinton from such closely-related firms as Swedish industrial holding company Investor AB ($325,000), Dutch real estate investment company OVG Rotterdam ($250,000); U.S. real estate developer Cushman and Wakefield ($300,000); General Motors ($200,000) which is pleading for a piece of the bailout; the National Apartment Association ($150.000); the National Association of Realtors ($125,000); the Standard Bank of South Africa ($150,000); and the National Multi-Housing Council ($150,000).
DAMN. That's a whole lot of money.
Developing...
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