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PrintJuly 24, 2009
Where Obama's identity politics pays off
From Politico's Huddle Blog:
CAUCUS CASH: The Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus have received a ton of money from lobbyists, as Fredreka Schouten reports in USA Today: 'Lobbyists and businesses that employ them donated $5.8 million last year to foundations affiliated with congressional groups, a USA TODAY analysis of federal lobbying data shows.
'Nearly all of it - $5.7 million - went to non-profit groups connected to the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, according to the analysis. Under congressional rules, the caucuses face limits on how much public money they can use to support their activities. They also are barred from using private funds to operate. However, nothing stops lobbyists from writing big checks to the non-profits connected to caucuses.'
This is how identity politics pays off. When you have a Supreme Court nominee who talks about being a Latina woman (and engaged in identity activism for years) and Attorney General Holder , in his first speech as AG, making it clear that his department would be focusing on discrimination in the workplace, and where you have many picks and policies made by and promoted by Barack Obama that are expressions of class-based politics (legalize illegal aliens to garner millions of new Democratic votes; making illegal immigrants eligible for taxpayer funded health care)an environment has been created that to play one must pay (off).
