Madoff Malestrom Winners: Democrats
Democrat mega-supporter and benefactor Bernard Madoff (oh…. you didn’t know that?… continue reading) is now trying to keep his $7 million Manhattan penthouse and an additional $62 million in municipal bonds and cash out of the hands of the feds, claiming that these assets don’t belong to him, but instead belong to his wife, Ruth (”I-Knew-Nothing-NOTHING”) Madoff.
Madoff, you’ll recall, is at the epicenter of the most gargantuan Ponzi-scheme rip-off in history…., after you exclude, of course, Obama’s $3.55 trillion spending spree and $1 trillion “soak only the rich” tax increase. Madoff is accused of bilking investors over the years of upwards of $50 billion. That’s $50,000,000,000.00 lost to investors who believed Madoff’s claims that their money would be safe and that the funds were a good investment in their futures. Kinda like the president’s speech to the Congress and electorate last week, only more credible.
The interesting thing about the Madoff maelstrom is that, thus far, the mainstream media has focused almost exclusively on Madoff’s predatory tactics from the perspective of his victims. Even now, the only stories on Madoff you usually see in the papers - including Manhattan’s Pravda on the Hudson - consist of journalistic vitriol directed at him and the evil Republicans whose “deregulation policies” allowed this to happen, followed immediately by sympathetic profiles of his victims.
And victims there are aplenty, from huge international banks down to the (formerly) rich and famous. Fairfield Greenwich Advisors ($7.5 billion); Tremont Group / Oppenheimer Funds / Massachusetts Mutual Life ($3.3 billion); Stephen Spielberg (who knows… Yoda?); Zsa Zsa Gabor; John Malkovich; Larry King; Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. The list goes on and on and on and…..
One of the more interesting “victims” listed is Marc Rich, the tax-cheat, fugitive financier. You remember him, don’t you Virginia? He was the guy Bill Clinton pardoned - with the approval of now Obama Attorney General Eric (”We-Are-a-Nation-of-Cowards-on-Race”) Holder - in the waning hours of Clinton’s administration. While Hillary was loading the U-Haul. So much for honor among thieves.
But as noted here last year (Liberty’s Apothecary “Charlie Ponzi Was a Piker” 12/19/08), the storyline you likely will never see in any of the mainstream media is the list of Democrats - and including the Democrat Senatorial Committee - who were recipients and beneficiaries of Bernie Madoff’s largess over the years. While some Republicans received Madoff money, virtually all of the dough went to the left. Liberal media bias perhaps? Who would have guessed?
Winners in the Madoff/Ponzi sweepstakes included Hillary Rodham (”It’s-Been-an-Interesting-Marriage”) Clinton, now Obama’s Secretary of State; Senator Charles (”The-People-Just-Don’t-Care-About-Earmarks”) Schumer (D.N.Y); Congressman Charles (”Whattaya-Mean-I-Gotta-Pay-My-Fair-Share-of-Taxes?”) Rangel (D.N.Y.); and Congressman David (”Don’t-Ask-Me-About-Earmarks”) Obey (D.WI.), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and co-author of the original, cosmetically-enhanced porker ultimately enacted as the “stimulus bill.” These Democrats received, at one time or another, thousands of dollars from Madoff.
Moreover, Democrat senatorial candidates in general - including one particular then-serving junior senator from Illinois - received indirect benefits from the over $100,000.00 in political contributions Madoff or his controlled entities made between 1998 and 2008 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Rumors continue to circulate that some of those Madoff bucks are being “considered” for divestiture and return or donation to non-profits… like ACORN… by Democrats so the record won’t show they were kept. Sort of like the Orwellian Memory Hole process now ongoing where Obama operatives are busy deleting the names of Obama and congressional carryovers who Obama has tapped for administration positions, but whose names were attached as original sponsors or co-sponsors of one or more of the 9,000+ earmarks in the bill.
Clearly, Madoff has made the most of an observation usually attributed to P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But since November 4, 2008, Madoff’s political choice in the White House has been furiously refining that same observation into the slippery lubricant for the conversion of America from a capitalist powerhouse into a Balkanized, socialistic collection of warring classes and races. Marx and Engels would be proud.
Ah, change.