Hightower Lowdown

What a splendid day Bill
Clinton had on May 24th!
First, he ramrodded Wall
Street’s odious China bill
through Congress (see
Lowdown, June 2000).
Then, that evening, Bill and
company proceeded to a
Democratic fund-raising
gala just a few blocks from
the Capitol. There, they collected
$26.5 million from
the very corporations they
had served so generously
just a few hours earlier.
Even by Washington
standards, this Wednesday
evening payoff was shockingly
cynical. Instead of
tuxedos, champagne, and
filet mignon, Democratic
Party fund-raiser Terry
McAuliffe orchestrated it as
a jeans, beer, and barbeque
blowout, boasting that it
was for the little contributors,
not the fat cats. As he
told CNN the day before:
“We have 12,000 people
that will be there tomorrow
night that paid $50 to be
there. They’ll be wearing
blue jeans and cowboy
hats. We’re going to have a
lot of fun. This is not a big
soft money event.”
Nice spin, Terry, but let’s
do the math: 12,000 people
at $50 a pop . . . hmmm
. . . that would raise only
$600,000. But your event
collected $26.5 million.
You can dress bribery in
blue jeans, but it still corrupts.
It was CEOs and corporate
lobbyists who were
slapping the backs of
Clinton and the Democrats
that night. The $50 donors
were stuck up in the cheap
seats, well out of reach.