Wall Street Firms Funnel Millions to Bush

Wall Street Firms Funnel Millions to Bush
Finance Sector Produces Surge of Cash to President Who Cut Taxes on Dividends, Gains
By Thomas B. Edsall and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 24, 2004; Page A04


At Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a suggestion from chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal is not to be taken lightly.



O'Neal eliminated 24,000 jobs, froze pay and steadily pushed out competitors for executive power, including colleagues who had championed his rise up the corporate ladder. "Ruthless," O'Neal has reportedly told colleagues, "isn't always bad."

So it came as no surprise that when O'Neal sent letters to senior executives at Merrill Lynch in early June asking them to contribute to President Bush's reelection campaign, the response was prompt and generous.

Between June 12 and June 30 of last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign was inundated with 157 checks from Merrill Lynch executives and at least 20 from their spouses; 140 checks were for the maximum allowed by law: $2,000.

Total take generated by the O'Neal letter: $279,750 in less than three weeks. When that total is combined with the rest of the money contributed to Bush by employees during the current election cycle, Merrill Lynch personnel have given $459,050, according to Dwight Morris & Associates, which studies political money.

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more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50364-2004May23.html?referrer=email
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Explore Bush's Fundraising Network
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/pioneers/pioneers_spheres.html?referrer=email

Tony Soprano has nothing on George Bush and his corporate prostitutes.

:eyes: the number of jobs won for the Pioneers is amazing

what do you mean, jobs?

click Bush Oil Ventures, then click Data Breakout....104 Bush Pioneers rec'd jobs

Here's snip from Buch Oil Ventures:

Beginning in the late 1970s, George W. Bush worked as a wildcatter in West Texas. {b]His ventures were financed in part by Wall Street bankers close to his uncle, Jonathan. In 1984, Mercer Reynolds and William O. DeWitt saved Bush's foundering drilling company by merging it with their own Spectrum 7. The merged company was later sold to Harken Energy Corp.

Good lord, how many times have they been prosecuted????

... have always covered themselves by providing a cut of the profits
to the local enforcement officers. This is just another such game.

Good. About time more corporate and government corruption are exposed and dealt with.

And how many of those white collar boys have seen the inside of a prison under Spitzer?

He ain't the darling you think he is.

ALL citizens and ALL corporations who donate to Bush are surely immoral.
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/IZXX0007.html

When such a CEO issues an edict (i.e. "request") that the executives make such contributions, it's a simple matter to access the FEC records to verify compliance. No "correct" contribution? Well, kiss your job good-bye. $2,000 is "job protection." Any company showing "100%" for either party is a company with political discrimination in hiring and promotion.

And they say"Kerry is not playing fair?"

Bush global terrorism.

the nation.

I've gone many a fund drive on DU without paying without my star & services being revoked. However, I do donate sporadically as long as I can do it anonymously. To not donate at all would be freeloading. That's not my cup of tea either.