The ties that bind. Remember Rahm Emanuel's rent-free D.C. apartment? The owner: A BP adviser

In case you were tempted to buy the faux Washington outrage at BP and its gulf oil spill in recent days, here's a story that reveals a little-known corporate political connection and the quiet way the inner political circles intersect, protect and care for one another in the nation's capital. And Chicago.

We already knew that BP and its folks were significant contributors to the record $750-million war chest of Barack Obama's 2007-08 campaign.

Now, we learn the details of a connection of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayoral wannabe, current Obama chief of staff, ex-representative, ex-Clinton money man and ex-Windy City political machine go-fer.

Shortly after Obama's happy inaugural,  eyebrows rose slightly upon word that, as a House member, Emanuel had lived the last five years rent-free in a D.C. apartment of Democratic colleague Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut and her husband, Stanley Greenberg.

For an ordinary American, that would likely raise some obvious tax liability questions. But like Emanuel, the guy overseeing the Internal Revenue Service now is another Obama insider, Tim Geithner, who had his own outstanding tax problems but skated through confirmation anyway by the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Remember this was all before the letters BP stood for Huge Mess. Even before the Obama administration gave BP a safety award.

Now follow these standard Washington links if you can: 

Greenberg's consulting firm was a prime architect of BP's recent rebranding drive as a green petroleum company, down to green signs and the slogan "Beyond Petroleum."

Greenberg's company is also closely tied to a sister Democratic outfit -- GCS, named for the last initials of Greenberg, James Carville, another Clinton advisor, and Bob Shrum, John Kerry's 2004 campaign manager.

According to published reports, GCS received hundreds of thousands of dollars in political polling contracts in recent years from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Probably just a crazy coincidence. But you'll never guess who was the chairman of that Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dispensing those huge polling contracts to his kindly rent-free landlord.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press (Emanuel, file).

Comments

[john]

Absolutely disgusting.

It shocks me that it's legal for elected officials to accept these kinds of bribers -- err, gifts. Wait, it's not legal. But the Obama administration has no intention of enforcing the law.

Remember this when Obama claims he just so darn mad at BP.

[patch]

It's all Bush's fault!

[PW]

b...b...b...but how can obama be a socialist and in bed with big oil (not to mention wall street) at the same time?

could it be that bill maher was right? (paraphrasing) "we have two parties in america: a right-of-center party beholden to corporate interests... and the republican party."

[zanne]

"Hope and Change!"

[Jon Fraud Carry]

That Dick Cheney! How did he pull this off!?
Barack Obama is evil, incarnate.

[karl hungus]

Ralph Nader is vindicated, once again. The democrats sold out decades ago, only now it is obvious because with the presidency and majorities in congress they still can't govern.

[Bill]

How's that Hope and Change working out?

[Lee]

Coming from Chicago it is my opinion you are looking at the man who stopped torture investigations, war crime investigations and the main driving force for Obamacare. The Big O will not fire him. He listens to all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.

[XKarenX]

Curiouser & curiouser. The GCS info is a thunderbolt: now, who exactly did Mr. Carville say is supposed to tell who that "Daddy" stuff? (And now I wonder if he really meant it)! It must have been a bit disorienting to him, Rahm & his boss BO to see the old cash cow's udder explode all over the Gulf.

[Neeraj Uppal]

The day this cockroach's name was entered into discussion, the Obama presidency was given a terminal prognosis. But never did I realize that Rahm would be Obama's beard.

[CisseforLiberty]

@PW - it's called corporatism, or in older parlance, merchantilism, which is unfortunately now the American way. The 'two' parties are a false dichotomy...

[The Doktor]

If someone has posted this already, I apologize in advance.

When the White House investigates themselves, once again, and then have Gibbs announce that there's no there there, well then, that will be that.

[Joe S.]

(cue the irony, Hopey-Changey fans)

OBAMA'S INTERIOR DEPARTMENT exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study in '09.

>>And let's hire Kanaye West to headline Hollywood's so-far-non-existent Gulf Fundraiser telethon.

[Rudy]

Not really sure how this is a tremendous smoking gun of any sort. Lobbyists, politicians and oil company ceo's have been having threesomes for quite some time now. I'm sure you could play a three degrees of corruption, fraud and lobbyist from any member of the Obama or Bush circles.

[daveinboca]

Andy, thanks for sleuthing out the reason that no Independent Counsel will ever be appointed to investigate the "crimes" of trying to bribe Sestak and Romanoff.

It just isn't a crime if the Obama Administration does it because

1- Everybody does it.

2- It was done with the best of intentions.

3- No harm, n0 foul

4- The White House has fully investigated and found no evidence of foul play.

and lastly, the events that made it possible were mostly Bush's fault, especially when GWB in 2004 claimed you could always depend on Specter to be a good Republican, thus getting turncoat Plugz Arlen reelected.

[Jess Henryes]

Mr. Malcolm
You asked to remember Emanuel's rent-free apartment, but you neglect to say a word about many republican congressmen and senators living in a tidy little townhouse owned by "The Fellowship" AKA the "Family." This is a secretive extreme right-wing Christian group, as defined by Wikipedia:
"The Fellowship's known participants include ranking United States government officials, corporate executives, heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and ambassadors and high ranking politicians from across the world" - one of the most politically well-connected ministries in the United States. The constitution is designed to protect the country from religion, as well as the practice of it.
The lawmakers pay a mere $600 a month including free maid service and meals for this ritzy little place. None of the self-identified, or known residents, claim these benefits on legally required financial reports.
So, Emanuel staying with friends of the same political party is worse than lawmakers accepting cheap rent from a religious entity seeking favors in notoriously expensive Washington?
Geithner was accused of a crumby $28,000 error on his tax forms which ain't much considering his government salary. And he paid the bill in full when it arrived.
George W. Bush hauled in and spent more than a half BILLION dollars in his 2006 re-election campaign alone, and more than $200 million in 2000.
Obama received about $900,000 - total from the gas and oil industry, while McCain grabbed $2.5 million in donations. Republicans were substantially favored by oil donors by 72% vs 28% to democrats.
And I know you don't want to talk about government contracts allegedly given to politically connected companies when Halliburton has received more than $275 billion between 2000 and 2005 just for contracts in Iraq.
It would be nice if you tried some fact-based journalism instead of attempting to smear a politician you don't like. Saying this column is despicable would be far nicer than it deserves.

(AM responds: Oh, Jess, puhleeze! And is that crowd running the White House and the oil spill now, and 2 wars and offering job bribes to drop out of primaries and the record deficit and the unstimulating economic stimulus and ....)

[Greydog]

I hate Rahm Emanuel.

[Aaron Nowling]

Between Chicago politics and Louisiana politics, one would think the United States was a banana republic. Emanuel should be tested to see if he has any Al Capone DNA.

[charles farley]

Rahm and Barry have turned the country into a banana republic.

[reginaldL]

"Obama received about $900,000 - total from the gas and oil industry, while McCain grabbed $2.5 million in donations. Republicans were substantially favored by oil donors by 72% vs 28% to democrats."

Posted by: Jess Henryes | June 08, 2010 at 12:03 AM

Jess, we're talking about British Petroleum - BP here and members of the Obama administration. You know why we're talking about BP here? Because BP's rig blew up and had an oil spill. Just trying to help you out.

[DooDooEcon]

Democrats corrupt?

Why do you think they have to buy votes with government welfare programs? If you vote for these people, you are as bad as they are.

[Jim Kearney NYC]

Tell me how you do ONE thing, and I'll tell you how you do EVERYTHING.

Obama started his political career in the very Living Room of domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers had a little tete a tete, LAUNCHING Obama's State Senatorial Campaign .

When confronted by this fact, Obama stated.
"He's just a guy from the neighborhood."

Tell me ONE Chicago Politician who rose from the ranks who was NOT dirty.

[Tanya Bachand]

Donate to DeLauro's opponent now: Jerry Labriola, Jr. is not a career politician, he hasn't been in office one single day, he is a fiscal conservative, a small business owner, and a high school soccer coach. www.labriolaforcongress.com

[Gil]

Really Andrew? This is what you have? First, it was BP employees who gave to Obama's campaign, not the BP PAC or API - Obama raised over 750 million and these people amounted to just over 71k.

Second, wow dude - that was pretty embarrassing over the supposed Rahm connection to BP - I mean, that is really embarrassing for you - that has to be the most pathetic conspiracy theory ever - and by the way, I hate Rahm.

Man, you are a hack.

[John Compton]

Good response Jess, justifying the Obama administration's actions because everybody does it and George W. Bush's administration was just as corrupt. However, Obama was elected, and the Democrats took majority in Congress based on the issues of transparency and change from corruption. Instead, it's meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[commonman]

please report back when there are any legal violations

[Frank]

This is just more of the same. We need to vote out everyone in office and get more people like Ron Paul. My vote is for Ron Paul in 2012! We need to keep the corporations out of politics. http://www.theobamacountdown.com

[Dan]

Please tell me that he is claiming this as INCOME on his TAXES?

Why not have the LA times look into that???

[Steve St Dog]

Yea. Like GWB & his band of saintly choristers never did anything wrong... Come on people, wake up & smell the coffee (oil), there's not a politician in this country that doesn't have some measure of blood on their hands.. They're all beholden to someone or some company and the republicans are by far the worst of all.

Tell us some more fairy stories of how fair and unbiased the right-wingers are...

[Jason]

Oh those Republicans, bought and paid for by big oil......

[Fred]

Can't wait to see this on the world news tonight!

[BobPDX]

This just keeps getting better.

I would love to hear current conversations between the Obama administration and BP.

I think it would suprise us.

[john]

What I'm shocked by is that anyone is shocked by this. The GOP is in bed with corporate interests. The Dems are in bed with corporate interests. This is how the US works and has for the past century. What about supposed ideological differences between the two? Superficial. Nothing more than disagreements between influential industries and organizations over how taxpayer money and natural resources are distributed amongst themselves. It's a grand show our politicians front, and perhaps a few of them are so persuasive that they've even come to believe the endless rhetoric seeping from their mouths - but it doesn't matter, that doesn't change any of the oligarchical processes at work.

So go ahead, keep pretending that whatever team you're rooting for are "the good guys" while the others are evil and the cause of all this nation's problems. It doesn't matter, The Game is fixed. The only safe bet is that the interests of a larger population of citizens will always fall short to those of a per$ua$ive minority.

[Shing]

Jess, when you lead off citing Wikipedia, your credibility is out the window.

I know facts are pesky little things, but here are a few for you.

1) Bush didn't run for re-election in 2006, it was 2004.
2) Total Bush campaign for 2004 was $269 million to Kerry's $239 million http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/presfin04.html
3) Obama 2008 campaign spent $488 million with $133 million still in the bank (that's over a half a billion if you cant add) http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/finance/candidates/barack-obama/
4)Rahm isn't just staying with "friends from the same party", he has direct involvement in steering contracts to someone giving him free rent.
5) Rahm's hyprocisy is that this Administration is talking tough against BP while getting free rent from a BP advisor and steering contract dollars to them.
6) THIS administration approved the drilling plans without an environmental impact study or review in 2009.
7) THIS administration was responsible for the safety inspections of the rig.
8) "Republicans get more money from oil companies" is not a defense when it's not Republicans talking about keeping their boots on the throat of BP.

[itsnotmyfault]

OH MY GOD. Did someone in this thread actually quote Wikepedia as some sort of proof to back up their opinion? Now I have seen, read & heard it all.

[Tone Loc]

Geez... Chicago politics.. It isn;t that hard .. they should have stayed in Chicago but noooo, they wanted to try the big leagues and run it "like chicago"

guess it aint working huh Rham ???

Who voted these clowns in ?

2010=HOPE
2012=CHANGE

[HeatherMae]

heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations,
Posted by: Jess Henryes | June 08, 2010 at 12:03 AM

Thats exactly the same as a big multinational corp.? I hope this paper also looks into the fact that Obama's other buddies Goldman Sacs sold off a ton of BP stock right before the incident, oh and Tony Hayward did also. And I especially like Mr."never let a good crisis go to waste" start pushing cap and trade instead of cutting E.P.A. red tape so the locals in LA could keep the coastline from being destroyed. I think I am going to start a new conspiracy theory about this mess now we will be able to add "The Oilers" to "The Truthers" and "The Birthers"

[jim hawkins]

Obama, Rahm Emanual and Timmy Geithner appear more reptilian by the day. Each has a forked tongue.

[Sam]

Oil slick??? or Real Slick??? Whose ass you gonna kick???
Look in the mirror!!! Did you plug the leak, Daddy?

[Steve]

"OH MY GOD. Did someone in this thread actually quote Wikepedia as some sort of proof to back up their opinion? Now I have seen, read & heard it all.

Posted by: itsnotmyfault | June 08, 2010 at 10:59 AM"

I had the same reaction. Apparently, she was too busy watching American Idol to do some real, meaningful research...

[Nick in Virginia]

@steve st. dog

Apparently we read different articles, or you are just much better at reading between the lines than I am.

I did not see ANYTHING in the article about right-wingers being fair and unbiased.

But I did see specific evidence about one particular person who happens to be White House Chief of Staff engaging in nefarious activity. But your phobic reaction to right wingers obviously overrides any evidence against Democrats, at least in your mind.

Gee, I wish I was as smart as you are.

[Jeffrey Schrembs]

My Lord WHEN will American Citizens DEMAND that this Obama/Democratis/Socialist/Anti-American CORRUPT cease?
These morality lacking SELL OUTS have taken and taken and taken and taken and breath "entitlements". A US CITIZEN would be subjected to IRS reviews and prosecution if they did 1/1000000th of what Obama admin has done.
American Citizens are waking up and finding CONSPIRACIES within our childrens classrooms, college classrooms, main street media, and ties with COMMUNISTS (i.e. Soros an admitted Nazi helper).
The Democrats have ABUSED the US Census and Voting Rights with ILLEGAL ALIENS and ACORN for decades.
ENOUGH!
We are only privy to a FRACTION of the illegal acts of this Obama administration and their "bleeding" of US Taxpayers and their pandering to ILLEGAL ALIENS and "single focus" organizations recycling BILLIONS in Federal Grants/Monies back to Democrats. ENOUGH!
Conservatives start DEMANDING God back in our schools, back in our hearts, and back in our lives. Take back our borders and our Nation while adhering to the US Constitution by voting these "Degree waiving Carpet Baggers" OUT OF OFFICE and prosecuting them for each and every crime they have committed.
NEVER AGAIN.
Jeffrey Schrembs, Proud US Citizen

[Eric]

The great American experiment is heading south in a hand basket...we are not a democracy...we are losing a grip on capitalism...and the dream of achieving noble work via a strong middle class is truly history. We are now engulfed in a worldwind but the seeds were planted generations ago. Look around you as the evidence is ever present.
November 2010 is our Rubicon!

[SparkyVA]

How come, I am looking at Rahm's picture and thinking about the movie the Godfather? His confidence in being able to get away with anything illegal tells me he is a made man.

[dave]

Darn that Bush fella.

[madmilker]

Not many today remember having to drive at 55mph on a Interstate highway and even less remember mandatory gas rationing "A, B, C, X" from December 1, 1942 to August 15, 1945 with a speed limit of 35mph.

Chrysler made fuselages. General Motors made airplane engines, guns, trucks and tanks. Packard made Rolls-Royce engines for the British air force. And lets not leave out Ford turning out one B-24 Liberator long-range bomber that had 1,550,000 parts every 63 minutes.

It really is amazing that the hydrogen-fueled internal combustion vehicle has been around since 1807 and Germany had a thousand running the streets doing World War II but after 200 years "oil" still rules.

What if today... the United States of America sold "Save America Petroleum Bonds" to individuals and the GM,Chrysler and Ford's of the World get off their lazy @ss.....oops!

It takes bout $2500 to retro-fit automobiles to run on natural gas....and with America having enough of this energy for another 100 years....and with the price cheaper than gasoline....if half the people in America put more of this in their automobile tanks besides that damn tiger from the Arabian sands....the price of Americans freedom would be worth a 1000 fold and a gallon of gas to those people skiing inside that man made Aspen ski slope in Dubai worth bout 2 RED CENTS.....

[mdp]

reading most of you here one has to wonder if the gop along with the tea baggers are the saviour to all our current problems.... please !! there is only one true political party in this country and they don't have to even get on a ballot or get confirmed to be involved in government affairs. wake up people !!

[sigmund]

It's ridiculous to pick on these little things that are part and parcel of politics. Individuals and organizations with money will generally find ways to get their messages to those in government. The best hope is that there is enough competition among them all so that the influences will tend to cancel each other out.

The big picture is that the United States needs oil. It appears that we need better regulation than we have now but we still do not want to over regulate the industry to the point where it can no longer function. The best course is to calmly analyze the circumstances that led to the current catastrophe and try to change the regulations accordingly. Also, any criminal activity should be ferreted out and prosecuted.

But one cannot make everything 100% safe. It is horrible that those 11 oil workers will never return to their families. But I could carefully drive down the expressway this afternoon in my well engineered safe Volvo with my airbags and seatbelt and I could still be killed.

Actually, I am impressed with how proactive BP has been and how hard it has worked to stop the flow. That does not mean that we should let them off the hook but I am amazed that they are able to do so much underwater. The technology is really impressive.

[J. Smith]

@Jess - "The constitution is designed to protect the country from religion, as well as the practice of it."

WOW. You're really going to go after someone for not pointing out facts in an opinion column? Although, you citing Wikipedia as a source does not give you much credibility either... NEWS FLASH - The constitution was designed to PROTECT religion and the FREE practice of it. Try reading the constitution before quoting it, wrongly. Amendment 1: "Congress shall make no LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the FREE EXCERCISE thereof..." I have read the constitution, many times, and have yet to see this thing you liberal progressives call "separation of church and state."

Open your eyes people. Both parties are corrupt. Most people with power over others are. Our constitution, as President Obama has pointed out many times, is a power limiting document. It establishes the GOD given rights they cannot take, and are supposed to protect. The problem is not the document it is the liberal interpretation of it, as Jess was so kind to point out. Read it. If you still don't understand it, read the Federalist Papers and the Declaration of Independence. Over 234 years ago we fought in a bloody struggle to end government tyranny. Don't throw it away for promises of Social Security, Medicare, Welfare and other costly programs. These programs will soon become a thing of the past. Your actions now determine whether or not your children become slaves to a tyrannical government.

[JTK]

This article is horrible tripe. What makes this guy think the outrage is fake? It isn't, and that claim makes the rest of it read like an ideological diatribe. If the author has the truth on his side then there wouldn't be a need to claim that the outrage is fake. That is so outrageously disengenuous that every other word this author comes out with is weakened by the lie.

Claiming that the outrage in Washington is fake is baseless slander. That claim implies that ALL of the elected officials are sociopaths who want strangers to suffer. That destroys the author's credibility, it is so outrageously ridiculous that no rational person will be able to take this guy seriously.

If you have an honest point to make, do not begin with dishonesty.

Consider this: The author, Andrew Malcolm, was a Bush employee. If Emanuel being tied to a company that represents BP is a clear sign of corruption, then Andrew Malcolm's clear tie to the Bush administration is also a clear sign of corruption. See how easy it is to use false reasoning?

Research this author on Media Matters.
Start with these links: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201006080043
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200903250010