Oh yeah ... O'Bama is awesome all right. I particularly like the fact that his is number two, right behind that dick-head Chris Dodd in the amount of money taken from Wall Street financiers to protect them from bills and regulations that would have avoided the largest theft in the history of the country ... the collapse of the large financial houses.
How's your union pension doing, Med? Or haven't you checked it over the past couple of days?
Vi
Uncle Sam
bailed out Freddie Mac and the company's twin sister, Fannie Mae, this week, and the next in line in the Wall Street family to get a helping hand might just be Lehman Brothers. Executives at the struggling investment bank are looking to sell the company with assistance from the government--and fast--as its stock plunges. Although the government isn't expected to completely bail out Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, the company has built a strong financial relationship with politicians over the years and coincidentally ranks fourth in the largest contributors in the race for the White House.
Since 1989, Lehman Brothers's employees and political action committee have given $9.2 million to federal candidates, parties and political action committees, with 54 percent of that going to Democrats. In the current Congress, 271 lawmakers have collected nearly $3 million since 1989, with 72 percent going to Democrats. Democratic presidential candidates and senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama top the list of all-time recipients for the company, collecting $410,000 and $395,600 respectively. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of both the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, hauled in $181,450, while Sen. Chris Dodd, chair of the Senate banking committee, has collected $165,800. The top recipient of PAC money from Lehman Brothers has been Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over banking and the securities industry. Castle has collected $38,500 from Lehman's PAC since 1993.
This election cycle, Lehman employees have given about $1.3 million to presidential candidates. Only fellow financial giants Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have given more to the presidential hopefuls this election cycle. Lehman employees have made their firm one of the top contributors to both
Obama ($370,500) and
John McCain ($117,500) this election cycle. The company is also on track to spend more than $800,000 on
federal lobbying this year.
The following members of the 110th Congress have received contributions from the employees and PAC of Lehman Brothers since the 1990 election cycle.
Members of the 110th Congress who have received campaign contributions from Lehman Brothers, 1989-2008
Name Office State Party Grand Total Total from
PACs Total from
Individuals Clinton, Hillary
S
NY
D
$409,980
$3,000
$406,980
Obama, Barack
S
IL
D
$395,574
$0
$395,574
Schumer, Charles E
S
NY
D
$181,450
$25,500
$155,950
Dodd, Christopher J
S
CT
D
$165,800
$25,400
$140,400
Lieberman, Joe
S
CT
I
$165,450
$10,000
$155,450
Kerry, John
S
MA
D
$151,664
$0
$151,664
McCain, John
S
AZ
R
$145,100
$1,000
$144,100
Rangel, Charles B
H
NY
D
$38,650
$24,750
$13,900
Lehman brothers have historically given more money to democratic candidates because they are generally in more in favor of free markets. You're correlation means nothing. It's a new year and counting inflation, there is no reason that the newest Democratic candidate shouldn't receive the highest amount. Next years Dem will probably receive even more.
