[Peace-discuss] Democrats' embarrassment in Massachusetts

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Martha Coakley is the Democraic party nominee in the special election for a 
Senate seat in Massachusetts, 'Ted Kennedy's seat.' She may well lose to a 
Republican in the election on Tuesday.  --CGE]

	Coakley's Corporate Connection
	by Russell Mokhiber
	Published on Friday, January 15, 2010 by SinglePayerAction

Martha Coakley is going down in flames.

So is the Democratic Party.

Why?

We found the answer earlier this week at - of all places - The Cato Institute in 
Washington, D.C.

Timothy Carney was giving a powerpoint presentation about his new book: 
"Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street 
Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses."

Here's the book in a nutshell:

"Both parties are the parties of big business," Carney said. "They both promote 
corporate socialism."

I sat there in the front row at Cato, in wonder.

Listening to the talk - as Carney outlined how Obama had cut deals with Billy 
Tauzin and the pharmaceutical industry.

Thinking to myself - is this why Martha Coakley is having such a hard time in 
Massachusetts?

She's just another corporate Dem - just like Obama?

Then, lo and behold, as if I was channeling Carney, he calls up a slide on his 
powerpoint.

On the big screen at Cato is an invitation to a corporate fundraiser - that 
night at the Sonoma Restaurant on Capitol Hill - for Coakley.

And I say to myself - wait a second.

Coakley is in the middle of a tight race and she's flying to DC one week before 
the election to be with a group of corporate lobbyists?

Yes.

She is.

And then Carney went down the list of 22 members of the host committees - 
meaning they each raised $10,000 or more for Coakley.

"Seventeen are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care 
clients," Carney said.

"You see the names - Gerald Cassidy, David Castagnetti,, Tommy Boggs - those are 
all lobbyists I've highlighted there who have clients who are drug companies, 
health insurers, hospitals or all three," Carney said. "AHIP, Phrma, Pfizer, 
Blue Cross - everybody is covered there. Aetna somehow isn't. I don't know how 
they got left out."

"These are the special interests," Carney said. "These are the people trying to 
elect Martha Coakley to be vote number 60 for health insurance."

Carney then puts up a slide showing how the Phrma cash went from supporting 
Republican candidates for President in the past - to supporting Barack Obama in 
2008.

"Barack Obama raised $2.1 million from drug companies in 2008," Carney said. 
"That's about equal to what John McCain raised plus what George Bush raised in 
both of his elections. It's the most by far any candidate has raised from the 
drug industry."

The people of Massachusetts already have tried a corporate reform that forces 
them to buy junk insurance.

They don't like it.

They're waiting for a candidate that will deliver a message they've been waiting 
to hear.

Single payer.

Everybody in.

Nobody out.

Put the private insurance companies out of business.

Drive down the cost of drugs to the levels of say Canada or the UK.

But Obama, Coakley and the Democrats are awash in corporate cash.

They have made their choice.

And they deserve to lose.

Onward to single payer.

© 2010 SinglePayerAction
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime 
Reporter.  He is also founder of singlepayeraction.org.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/15-10

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