The Corruption of the Democratic Party

William Magear “Boss” Tweed          Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons (PD-US-unpublished)

William Magear “Boss” Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878) was a notorious Democratic politician of the 19th century who was the “Boss” of the equally notorious Tammany Hall gang from 1858 until his imprisonment for graft and corruption in 1872.     

Tweed died as a prisoner in Ludlow Street Jail, New York City’s Federal prison on April 12, 1878. Under “Boss” Tweed’s supervision, Tammany Hall ran New York City as their personal fiefdom for their mutual benefit. No better short summary of the activities of Tweed and Tammany Hall can be found that that of Tweed biographer Kenneth D Ackerman (Reference [H5]):

It’s hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed’s system … The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.

“Boss” Tweed would be proud of the direction his modern day successors are taking. Although more Democratic corruption can be found at the state and local level, national politicians usually work their way up from and learn their fundamental trade at state and local levels. There are some bad eggs in all baskets, of course; four of Illinois’ last eight governors have been convicted and imprisoned, one of which (George Ryan) was a Republican; the other three were the Democrats Rod Blogojevich, Dan Walker, and Otto Kerner. You remember  Rod Blogojevich, do you not? He was the fellow who tried to sell Obama’s old Senate seat when Obama advanced to the Presidency, and the first Illinois governor to be impeached before he was convicted of a number of corruption charges in 2007. In addition the previous Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, just defeated by the Republican Bruce Rauner, has an excellent chance of becoming the third Illinois governor in a row to go to prison for corruption  What is it about the water in Springfield? Although one can find a lot of Democratic corruption in predominantly blue states (e.g. see the posts California Democrats Await Fallout After 3 Are Caught Up in Scandals, The Corruption Problem with California Democrats, New York Governor’s office now involved in corruption probe, The Many Faces of State Political Scandals, Feds arrest top New York Democrat for corruption, Bharara sees corruption “all over” New York State, 5 Points On How New York State Got So Damn Corrupt, State of corruption: N.J’s most infamous political scandals, Why are New Jersey politicians so corrupt?, Wisconsin Political Speech Raid, The Wisconsin Targets Tell Their Story, and on and on and on …), I have emphasized the Democratic problems in Illinois because that was the environment in which Barack Obama as a state senator learned his basic lessons about holding public office.

Whether he learned these lessons all too well or whether the Illinois mafia he brought with him when he entered the Presidency brought the subject matter with them, we may never know. His Illinois staffers have included: Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor; Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff and now Mayor of Chicago; David Axelrod, Media Strategist; and William M. Daley, chief-of-staff for one year in 2011 and the son of one-time Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. However President Obama came by the hard-ball tactics that became edged weapons of autocracy, they have been much in evidence throughout his administration. Consider the following scandals of his administration:

• IRS targeting of conservative groups to silence them during elections: See the posts
  • IRS audit found political bias against conservatives; groups gave up after application delay,
  • Judge orders IRS to release list of targeted conservative non-profit groups
  • Why Did the IRS Target Conservative Groups
  • IRS Says Official’s Emails Were Lost in Computer Crash
  • IRS canceled e-mail back-up service – weeks after Lerner hard drive crash
  • IRS Claims Six More Computer Crashes Led to Lost Emails
  • George Will On IRS Computer Crash: ‘Religions Have Been Founded On Less’
• Violation of the U.S. Constitution through Presidential edicts
  • Obama immigration executive order: A violation of the Constitution?
  • The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives
  • Rand Paul says Obama’s immigration move violates parts of the Constitution, like Articles I and II
  • Krauthammer’s Take: Obama Admitted Violating Article I of Constitution
  • States Sue Obama Administration Over Executive Order on Immigration
  • Federal judge in Pittsburgh declares Obama’s immigration action unconstitutional
  • Federal judge called Obama immigration action ‘unconstitutional’ David Jolly says
• The Benghazi scandal
  • US consulate attack in Benghazi: a challenge to official version of events
  • Benghazi: Obama’s Actions Amount to a Shameful Dereliction Of Duty
  • ‘Serial liar’: Families of Benghazi victims blast Clinton on Benghazi
  • Hillary Clinton Was Warned Not To Blame Benghazi on YouTube Video
  • Hillary Clinton’s big Benghazi lie
• The attempt to prosecute Fox News reporter James Rosen as a criminal
  • Justice Department’s scrutiny of Fox News reporter James Rosen in leak case draws fire
  • Obama DOJ formally accuses jounalist in leak case of committing crimes
  • DOJ invoked Espionage Act in calling Fox News reporter criminal ‘co-conspirator’
  • DOJ Calls Fox News Reporter James Rosen ‘Co-conspirator’ in Leak Case; Journalists Outraged
• The specious arrest of Nakoula Bassely Nakoula
  • The Benghazi patsy
  • Filmmaker of movie initially blamed for Benghazi attacks: Obama administration was irresponsible
• Shielding of Black Panthers from charges of voter intimidation
  • Black Panther Boss Who Got Off For Voter Intimidation Arrested
  • 2008 voter-intimidation case against New Black Panthers riles the right

There are a number of other scandals that could have been added, but the list above gives a sampling of some of the more important ones.

A sure fire way of finding out how much you can trust a person is to count not only how many lies he or she tells you, but how many lies of substance. Little white lies should not count for much. So let us count the number of substantive lies Barack Obama has fed us.

1. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health-care plan, you can keep your health-care plan.”
2. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime — but also to other players on the ground — that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” What are a few red lines between friends?
3. Concerning what happened to the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, he said, “Here’s what happened. . . . You had a video that was released by somebody who lives here, sort of a shadowy character who — who made an extremely offensive video directed at — at Mohammed and Islam . . . making fun of the Prophet Mohammed. And so, this caused great offense in much of the Muslim world. But what also happened, extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassies, including the one, the consulate in Libya.”
4. And what did Mr. Obama say about people’s religious reservations concerning abortion? “Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause and make sure that all of our health-care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
5. Obama’s disrespect for capitalism comes through loud and clear in this whopper. “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
6. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama promised us “We have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over.  … I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won’t find a job in my White House.” Check out this list of lobbyists he appointed to his administration in his first 14 days in office.
7. Concerning the Iran nuclear deal, our truth-challenged President said “The vast majority of experts on nuclear proliferation have endorsed this deal. The world is more or less united …”  Really? Then what about the 200 retired generals and admirals who wrote to Congress urging the rejection of this agreement? You can read their letter here.

You can find much longer lists of Obama’s prevarications on the internet, but I tire of the exercise. If you are a glutton for punishment, you can find greater collections here and here.

Why would anyone want a seriously corrupt organization headed by an incorrigible liar to rule them?

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