Chamber targets anti-business candidates
With the nation's economy increasingly becoming a volatile issue in the presidential campaign, the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce is about to issue one very tough promise to spend millions of dollars against candidates deemed to be anti-business. (Are you listening John Edwards?)
Actually, are you listening, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee?
Tom Donohue tells The Times' Tom Hamburger no more Mr. Now and Then Nice Guy.
"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," Donohue threatens. But how does he really feel? Donohue plans to outline exactly how hard the chamber will bite at a Washington news conference Tuesday, as a nice lighter change of pace from, say, New Hampshire politics.
Hamburger's entire exclusive story is available by clicking here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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It's clearly time that the government moves to stop this kind of lobbying and promises of attacks! Tom Donohue's coarse threats are anathema to a democratic country.
Posted by: R Davis | January 08, 2008 at 08:26 AM
So, which part of Edward's message is wrong or untrue. Corporate lobbyists DO impart a disproportionate amount of influence on Congress and the Presidency. They DO provide massive amounts of campaign funds to essentially buy access and legislation. This does SUBVERT democracy. It IS a major problem.
So I guess the Chamber of Congress is anti-democracy, anti-will of the people, and pro-buying as many politicians as possible. Don't forget ENRON people or Jack Abramoff -- corporate corruption and greed run rampant despite the Chamber of Commerce's attempt to propagandize these very facts.
Posted by: Palooza | January 11, 2008 at 07:32 PM