Weekly remarks: Obama offers new savings ideas; GOP's Kline urges healthcare debate reset

Well, the wily, not-so-old president decided to pull a fast one on this otherwise slow news holiday weekend and make a little news. Even though he's actually again on vacation, this time up at Camp David.

First, as his Vice President Joe Biden did the other day, Obama makes claims of seeing significant improvement in the economy because the number of jobs lost each month is less bad than before and banks are repaying some of those federal loans. 

His news is that he's found another dangerous road that Americans cannot continue to go down: The not-saving-enough-for-the-future road.

The Democrat, who now lives in free government housing, thinks Americans should save more for their future -- college, retirement, whatever. He wants to ease procedures for small businesses to have workers enroll in 401(k) programs.

He wants to enable Americans to send federal income tax refunds directly back to the federal government by purchasing U.S. savings bonds to help cover the gargantuan budget deficits coming down another dangerous road. That bond idea will be particularly popular among people certain they'll live sufficient decades to earn significant interest if current rates continue.

Obama also wants tax rules written in plain English so that people like his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Democratic ex-Sen. Tom Daschle can understand them and not inadvertently fall behind in paying some for years.

And Obama wants politics bloggers and presumably others with unused sick and....

Political bundler Norman Hsu -- remember him? -- admits fraud

Quick update for all you waiters and postal workers out there who had hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to Democratic political campaigns in your name in recent years.

Your pal, Norman Hsu, pleaded guilty today in New York to 10 counts of wire and mail fraud. Seems he was also running a Ponzi scheme that cheated investors out of some $20 million. As well as arranging generous donations to politicians like Hillary Clinton from people who would seem unable to afford them.

"I knew what I was doing was illegal," Hsu told the federal judge.

Still to come, a trial on four counts of violating federal campaign finance laws. The feds say Hsu made substantial donations in other people's names to acquire access to and influence with some 50 politicians, whose friendship he would then advertise to draw in Ponzi investors.

"He's like a groupie," explained Hsu's lawyer, Alan Seidler. "He just likes the political process."

As blogger Don Surber describes it, "Hsu is Bernie Madoff's Mini-Me."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Norman Hsu with Hillary Clinton in 2005. Credit: Associated Press

Obama's inaugural party fundraising passing $27 million

Gee, Barack Obama and huge gobs of money. That's something we hadn't thought about for two or three minutes.

Word just in that with still almost two weeks to go before the historic Jan. 20 inauguration, the private fundraising for the Obamas' mega-party has already passed $27 million, or better than a million bucks an hour for that day.

Nowhere near the $640 ga-million he raised for the recent campaign. But still not bad dough for an ex-community organizer in a few post-election weeks.

Individuals can chip in $50G each. And there's still time if you'd like to join the likes of George Soros, Halle Berry, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Oh, and Barbra Streisand. And some casino-running Indian tribes. Etc. Etc. And a generous donor the creator of "Star Wars" the movies George Lucas is.

Our blogging buddy Mark Silva, who's no doubt worth all that and more, has even more names and numbers over at the Swamp.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: LucasFilm (on photo place cursor for caption).

Ticket Replay: Bill Clinton lists 2,922 pages of very rich friends so Hillary can work for Obama

This weekend The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the past political season. This item originally appeared in this space on Dec. 19, 2008:

For somebody who left office in 2001 with what to an ordinary human would seem a staggering personal debt, ex-President William J. Clinton has done all right, both for himself and for his Clinton Foundation.

He and his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, successfully resisted requests and demands to see the donor lists of his foundation in recent years. But apparently as part of a transparency agreement between the Clintons and President-elect Barack Obama's transition team as a condition of the senator's impending appointment as secretary of State, the ex-president released 2,922 pages of foundation donor names today.

It reads like a "Who are they?" file of the globe's really, really rich people and governments. Saudi Arabia, Norway and Jamaica, for instance, have donated millions of the $492 million given to the foundation. (Something else to think about: That awesome sum is still not quite 66% of the amount poured into Obama's presidential campaign.)

Clinton has said he will continue to release contributors' names as long as his wife is secretary of State, which she isn't yet. The Obama transition team apparently trusts that the cleansing power of daylight will prevent or cover any potential conflicts of interest.

The list includes sources as varied as Bill and Melinda Gates, Stephen Bing, an arm of the World Health Organization and the Princess Diana Memorial Fund.

But you just know that every time H. Clinton travels somewhere on Obama administration business someone somewhere will be combing the foundation database to see if her host is among the charitable many who might seek favors from her.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Obama's small donor base image is a myth, new study reveals

Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.

Except, it turns out, that's not really true.

In fact, Obama's base of small donors was almost exactly the same percent as George W. Bush's in 2004 -- Obama had 26% and the great Republican satan 25%. Obviously, this is unacceptable to current popular thinking.

But the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute just issued a detailed study of Obama's donor base and its giving. And that's what the Institute found, to its own surprise.

"The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama's finances," said CFI's executive director Michael Malbin, admitting that his organization also was fooled. "The reality of Obama's fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth."

Adding up the total contributions from the same small individuals (in terms of dollar amounts, not their height), the Institute discovered that rather than the 50+% commonly....

Norman Hsu, a name Hillary Clinton wants to forget, faces new allegations

Political fund-raiser Norman Hsu used his connections to politicians--Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were the main ones--to con people into investing in his pyramid scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission charges in a complaint today.

In papers filed today in federal court in Los Angeles, the SEC said Hsu and one of his companies, Next Components, operated a $60 million Ponzi scheme. He used investors’ money to pay his “sales agents, make political campaign contributions, and support Hsu’s luxurious lifestyle,” the SEC said.

The suit seeks to force Hsu to repay money, although it’s not clear he has any money left.

Hsu bundled more than $1 million for an array of politicians, most of them Democrats, starting in 2004. He outdid himself in the Democratic primary, when he raised in excess of $800,000 for Sen. Clinton.

Clinton sought to limit the fall-out story by returning the money to donors solicited by Hsu.

Hsu’s scheme unraveled a year ago after Times reporter Chuck Neubauer and then-Times reporter Robin Fields disclosed that he was a fugitive from a fraud conviction in the early 1990s in suburban San Francisco. Hsu made a court appearance in 2007, posted $2 million bond, then fled again, by train. He was apprehended in Colorado after he made what had been described as a suicide attempt.

Linda Chatman Thomsen, SEC’s Division of Enforcement director, said Hsu used some investor money to make campaign donations, and “then used the veneer of respectability created by his political connections to persuade his investors that the investments he offered were legitimate.”

“This deception convinced investors to continue to invest with Hsu, even as he and his company allegedly siphoned away investor funds to pay for his own extravagant lifestyle and to finance a Ponzi scheme,” the SEC alleges.

Hsu is in custody awaiting trial on federal criminal fraud charges in New York.

--Dan Morain

Photo credit: Hand-out

Barack Obama returns to where the money is -- Beverly Hills

Barack Obama is dropping in on his Beverly Hills friends tonight and will leave with his campaign coffers bulging with many millions more.

The first event, $28,500 per ticket, will be at Greystone Mansion -- the Beverly Hills landmark that was built with oil wealth, was the scene of a lurid murder in 1929 and has been the setting for numerous films, among them one of the “Ghostbusters” films, “Air Force One” and “Nixon.” (See photo below.)

The second event will be at the Regent Beverly Wilshire and will cost $2,500 per ticket. Barbra Streisand will provide entertainment, presumably singing.

The money will go to Obama's campaign account, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising accounts that Obama and the DNC have set up.

Both events are sold out. Obama's campaign aides won't divulge the amount they expect to raise, but it could be stratospheric.

The Greystone event is expected to draw 300. If all pay, the take would top $8 million. The second event is expected to draw 900, for upward of $2 million if all pay.

Hollywood moguls raising money for Obama tonight include David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg, as well as Michael and Jamie Lynton, he of Sony Pictures.

The amount raised tonight or on any other night cannot be gleaned from public documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. Dates that people send checks and dates they are ....

Updated: Before their fall, Wall Street titans spent big on Barack Obama, John McCain, other pols

As Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers shrivel into history, Barack Obama, John McCain and many other politicians are calling for more Wall Street regulation.

Perhaps campaign donations shelled out by both firms had something to do with the current state of the law.

Before being taken over by Bank of America, Merrill executives and employees had contributed almost $2.1 million to federal candidates and parties since the start of 2007, according to Federal Election Commission records, gleaned from Congressional Quarterly's Moneyline database.

Lehman employees, seeking bankruptcy protection, added $1.9 million.

Insurance giant AIG, a third firm reeling under the weight of bad mortgage loans, kicked in $664,000.

Not surprisingly, Obama and McCain took in top dollar from the three firms: $625,409 for Obama and $579,000 for McCain. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, received another $48,975.

There were no contributions listed for McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, for a simple reason: She never before sought federal office.

McCain has at least three major volunteer fundraisers who bundle donations from others on Wall Street and environs. McCain voluntarily discloses the occupations of his bundlers. Obama does not.

Merrill Chief Executive, John Thain, is among McCain's bundlers and has donated $32,700 to various McCain-related committees. Thain's predecessor, Stanley O'Neal, was a $2,300 Obama donor.

Other major recipients in 2007-2008 include Sen. Hillary Clinton ($516,750), former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ($340,550), and Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd ($195,300).

Many Wall Street donors, such as Lehman Chief Executive Richard S. Fuld, gave to both sides, $2,300 to Obama and the same to McCain.

Fuld also gave $10,000 to the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee and $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He gave most of his donations in 2007, back when times weren’t quite so tough.

[UPDATE]: Obama spokesman Ben Labolt charged that McCain has taken money from political action committees representing the financial services and insurance industries, while Obama has refused such money in the presidential campaign.

"Obama has consistently called for stepped up oversight of our financial markets to prevent the crisis that we face today," Labolt said.

-- Dan Morain

Terrorism charges lodged against protesters at GOP convention

Prosecutors in Ramsey County, Minn., have formally charged eight alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee -- one of the groups organizing protests at the GOP convention in St. Paul -- with terrorism-related charges, The Times' P.J. Huffstutter reports.

Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge, which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty they could face.

It appears to be the first time criminal charges have been filed under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act.

The RNC Welcoming Committee is a self-described anarchist group that has worked for months planning disruptions at the convention. Police blamed the group for sparking violence during Monday's antiwar protest in St. Paul. Although most of the estimated 10,000 people at the march were peaceful, police say a splinter group of about 200 people harassed delegates, smashed windows and started at least one fire.

Police have arrested nearly 300 people during the confrontations this week, according to the Associated Press.  Huffstutter reported on the protests for the blog Tuesday. And this morning, we told the story of journalist Amy Goodman's arrest at Monday's march.

-- Kate Linthicum

J.B. Pritzker and Penny Pritzker end their Clinton-Obama rift

A primary campaign, of course, is not a civil war.

But the Hillary Rodham Clinton-Barack Obama battle did divide brother against sister.

J.B. Pritzker backed Clinton. His sister, Penny S. Pritzker, backed Obama. But this was not just any brother-sister rivalry. This was a public split between two of Chicago’s most prominent business people. Now that Clinton has lost, the political rift between the heirs to the Hyatt hotel fortune is closing.

Penny is a billionaire businesswoman-philanthropist, No. 135 on Forbes' 2007 of the richest Americans. She is national finance committee chair for Obama’s campaign and helped oversee a fund-raising operation that has raised $390 million for the soon-to-be Democratic nominee.

J.B., also known as Jay Robert, is No. 149 on the Forbes list and was a national co-chair for Clinton’s campaign. He figures he raised more than $1 million for the New York senator. Now, in the spirit of Democratic unity, he is calling Clinton backers in Chicago -- and there were more than a few -- to a fund-raiser in Chicago for Obama.

“I’m going to stand with the Democratic nominee and help in any way I can,” he said from the Denver convention, where he is a Clinton delegate. He is not sure of the exact location or date, except that it will be in September. Nor is he certain that Obama will attend. But he said his sister will be there and so will Clinton.

It wasn’t easy being for Clinton in Chicago. Illinois was Obama’s turf. He won the primary with 65% of the vote and raised millions. There were times that Clinton backers viewed themselves as being in the bunker.

Few would speak publicly about their support for Clinton and skepticism about Obama, concerned that they would be shunned. Some said in private that they worried their businesses might suffer. But Clinton was not without her support. She raised almost $6 million in Illinois, the state where she was born.

In the interview today, J.B. Pritzker quoted...