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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Where the REAL Money Is: “With Another Bush Eyeing White House, Family Money Machine Springs to Life”

Where the REAL Money Is: “With Another Bush Eyeing White House, Family Money Machine Springs to Life”

by Anne Laurie|  May 18, 20151:47 am| 47 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.

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The Wall Street Journal approves this message, as “Jeb Bush set for record haul from loyal donor network built over decades“:

Former first lady Barbara Bush began adding campaign donors to the family’s Christmas card list five decades ago, building an index-card file of well-heeled contributors who went on to serve as ambassadors, cabinet members and State Department advisers in the two Bush administrations.

Jeb Bush, who opened the door to a presidential campaign five months ago, is now reaping a record-setting haul thanks to a donor network that stretches back to his father’s election to Congress in 1966.

“The Bush family gave us the chance to serve,” said donor David D. Aufhauser, who worked as general counsel for the Treasury Department under former President George W. Bush. “So we are loyal.” …

This ready-made fundraising operation offers Mr. Bush a financial and organizational advantage in what is expected to be a crowded and costly Republican Party primary…

The Bush circle includes the family of Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, which has given more than $1 million to the campaigns and political committees operating during Bush presidencies and governorships, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics; the family of private-equity firm KKR co-founder Henry Kravis gave nearly $600,000; and the family of Richard Kinder, the co-founder of energy company Kinder Morgan, gave more than $800,000.

Brad Freeman, chairman of a California private-equity firm, said he retired from fundraising after raising millions of dollars for George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election. But when Jeb Bush signaled his interest, Mr. Freeman said, “I had no choice. I strapped on the guns one more time.”…

Mr. Bush, the former governor of Florida, recently told donors in Miami Beach that he raised more money in his first 100 days as a potential candidate than any previous Republican contender. (His brother set the previous record by collecting $37 million in the first few months of 1999.) The tally is widely expected to exceed $100 million, though details won’t be disclosed until Mr. Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise, files a report by July 31 with the Federal Election Commission…

“When you hitch your wagon to the Bushes, you become part of an extended family,” said Dirk Van Dongen, a Washington lobbyist and former Pioneer and Ranger who helped organize two fundraisers for Jeb Bush. “They remember their friends and they are good to their friends.”…

Former President George W. Bush is credited with breaking ground on campaign fundraising by pushing supporters to bundle donations from their friends, family and business associates. Jeb Bush is continuing that strategy with more ambitious goals, even before an official campaign launch. Donors to his super PAC are divided among those who raise at least $500,000, $250,000, $100,000 and $50,000.

“Fundraising is to some extent a competitive sport that attracts type-A types who like to win,” Mr. Van Dongen said. “When you bring donors together, it’s like a company bringing together its top sales people—you get time with the boss, recognition in front of your peers.”…

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Tell me that doesn’t sound like a WASP version of the Sopranos… complete with its own Livia, ever egging the boys on to bigger crimes.

Clinton Cash is chump change. pic.twitter.com/HMqCjRKr6X

— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) May 16, 2015

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Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    Chris

    May 18, 2015 at 1:50 am

    the family of private-equity firm KKR

    Was it just me that thought I’d read KKK for a second as I glanced over the text?

  2. 2.

    Little Boots

    May 18, 2015 at 1:52 am

    and yet, he may have just blown it all. sorry, investors!

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    May 18, 2015 at 1:57 am

    Jeb’s creating jobs, at least. A few.

  4. 4.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 18, 2015 at 1:59 am

    @Little Boots: JEB!’s not making a strong start out of the gate, or to the gate as he’s not yet a declared candidate.

  5. 5.

    Little Boots

    May 18, 2015 at 2:01 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    that is true. maybe he’ll just skip the whole announcement thing and just slink away.

    but we know he won’t.

  6. 6.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 18, 2015 at 2:03 am

    @Little Boots: First debate is Aug. 6, so he’ll have to do it before then.

  7. 7.

    David Koch

    May 18, 2015 at 2:09 am

    Rod TBGWT @rodimusprime

    Al Shapton should just troll white people one time by going to Waco to address their community.
    3:43 PM – 17 May 2015

  8. 8.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    May 18, 2015 at 2:11 am

    43 hours to go on the Kickstarter. It’s not too late to join in.

  9. 9.

    Tenar Darell

    May 18, 2015 at 2:13 am

    Not a Sopranos watcher. But, Livia was also the wife of Emperor Augustus, so that’s just another layer of creepy.

  10. 10.

    scav

    May 18, 2015 at 2:13 am

    Well, we can now see what the problem is. The Clintons were so gauche as to nominally work for their large sums of cash. The proper way to to amass the obscene sums is from friends using engraved and personalized Christmas cards from Mumsie.

  11. 11.

    redshirt

    May 18, 2015 at 2:18 am

    @scav: Yes. Except now with a rich southern accent.

  12. 12.

    David Koch

    May 18, 2015 at 2:21 am

    You know which GOP candidate raised the most money in 1980? It wasn’t Reagan. Hint: he was from Texas. No, not Poppy Bush.

    It was….. John Connolly.

    Yup. He actually ran in 1980. The former Texas Governor and former US Treasury Secretary raised the most money (mostly from texas oil and Wall Street) and he won the grand total of one delegate. No joke, he won just a single delegate in South Carolina.

    In 1996 the person who raised the most money wasn’t Bob Dole, but rather Chairman of Senate Finance committee, Phil Gramm. He didn’t win a single delegate.

    In 2008 the person who raised the most money wasn’t McCain or even RMoney, it was the Mayor of Wall Street, Rudy Giuliani. Even with all that cash, even with the love from the corporate media (“America’s Mayor”), even with all the fame (Time’s Person of the Year/”Hero of 9/11″), he didn’t win a single delegate.

    Money can’t buy you love – or a nomination.

  13. 13.

    xenos

    May 18, 2015 at 2:21 am

    @Tenar Darell: one of the awkward first season Sapranos episodes, where Tony acts as enforcer for an intra ultra orthodox Jewish dispute, explored the theme of the mob being the modern equivalent of the Romans.

    Meanwhile the Cossacks are erecting statue of Pouting dressed as a Roman emporté to celebrate the annexation of Crimea.

  14. 14.

    EconWatcher

    May 18, 2015 at 2:29 am

    I have had a bit of a soft spot for HW. With notable exceptions (eg, appointment of Clarence Thomas), his presidency considered by itself would look pretty decent in historical perspective (securing of loose nukes, risky and costly concessions to balance the budget, etc.) And he really fought and risked his life in WWII as an 18-year old kid, and went on to build an actual resume of accomplishment before running for president. As I recall, Molly Ivins credited him with voting for a civil rights law as a Texas congressman that royally POed his constituency.

    But the man has completely destroyed his legacy by helping put his lazy and worthless spawn in the position to wreak permanent damage on the country. And deep down, I’ll bet he knows that.

  15. 15.

    redshirt

    May 18, 2015 at 2:34 am

    Bush the elder was my first Presidential vote and I regret it but not greatly.

    He handled a complicated period in world history with enough skill and aplomb to get us through it without nuclear war, and for that I am forever grateful.

  16. 16.

    Anne Laurie

    May 18, 2015 at 2:49 am

    @EconWatcher:

    I have had a bit of a soft spot for HW.

    Except young HW didn’t have the balls to live up to his old man’s patrician criminality, or the integrity to GTFO and earn an honest living at something other than the CIA. And he married a woman just like his dear old ma, someone who’d enforce all his worst moral failings, while encouraging their kids to be cruel, venal, and dishonest.

    Future historians (assuming there are any) are going to treat the Bush family the way we do the later Roman emperors, or the declining Hapsburgs — entertaining soap opera, terrible politics.

  17. 17.

    David Koch

    May 18, 2015 at 2:55 am

    @David Koch: I should add in 1964 the GOP candidate with the most money was Rockefeller, who at the time was the sitting governor of what was then the largest state in the union. He lost the nomination to a nut cake from a state which at the time only had 5 electoral votes.

  18. 18.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 18, 2015 at 3:02 am

    @David Koch: A state that also had only been a state for 52 years at the time. His running mate went on to do American Express commercials, “Do you know who I am?…”

  19. 19.

    Hal

    May 18, 2015 at 3:05 am

    @David Koch:

    Rod TBGWT @rodimusprime

    Al Shapton should just troll white people one time by going to Waco to address their community.
    3:43 PM – 17 May 2015

    I really shouldn’t reveal my people’s secrets, but Al Sharpton only appears when a black person says Tawana Brawley 3 times in a mirror.

  20. 20.

    Tenar Darell

    May 18, 2015 at 3:11 am

    @David Koch: Goldwater, huh. That sent a shiver up my spine.

  21. 21.

    SRW1

    May 18, 2015 at 3:13 am

    @xenos:

    I thought the Cossacks were busy shooting it out with rival motor cycle gangs in Waco.

  22. 22.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 18, 2015 at 3:14 am

    @Tenar Darell: Ol’ Barry would be a Commie in today’s GOP.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    May 18, 2015 at 3:27 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: How long had Hawaii been a state when Obama was first elected? He has ties to that state as well as to Illinois. We could also throw in Alaska and Sarah Palin.

  24. 24.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 18, 2015 at 3:35 am

    @Brachiator: 49 years for both AK and HI, both became states in 1959.

  25. 25.

    gogiggs

    May 18, 2015 at 4:03 am

    What it sounds like is fucking feudalism, complete with wars they can’t afford and reducing the rest of us to serfdom.

  26. 26.

    EconWatcher

    May 18, 2015 at 4:32 am

    @Anne Laurie:

    Not necessarily disgreeing, but I’ll point out that he led the CIA after the Church Committee hearings, when its wings were very much clipped and its reign of criminality was mostly over (of course, the reign began again after 9-11).

    It was one thing to be DCI in the 1950s or at the time of Allende; another thing entirely from 1976-77, when Poppy Bush did his stint.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 18, 2015 at 4:42 am

    @gogiggs: It’s what the Koch brothers want, for sure.

  28. 28.

    Keith G

    May 18, 2015 at 7:03 am

    @EconWatcher: Yeah, AL has pulled an Amtrak and have left the tracks on this rant. GHWB is a man of considerable accomplishment with some of it being genuinely important and laudable. Of course there are things that he got incredibly wrong, but as far as that small collection of American uber politicians go, he definitely is one of the better.

  29. 29.

    HRA

    May 18, 2015 at 7:17 am

    What EconWatcher and Keith G. wrote here about Poppy Bush.

    Sigh! This is going to be an overlong bitter season on the election .

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    May 18, 2015 at 7:40 am

    Yeah, but it’s fine because Jeb isn’t going to say he cares about the poors. Unlike Ms. Gonna-Fuck-Up-Her-Slam-Dunk.

    At least that’s according to what I read on the intertubes….

  31. 31.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @Chris:

    Kohlberg, Kravis, & Roberts.

    Back in the ’80s they were world-famous for taking the LBO to unknown heights.

  32. 32.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 8:36 am

    @EconWatcher:

    I have had a bit of a soft spot for HW.

    The 1988 campaign alone ought to disabuse you.

  33. 33.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 8:37 am

    @EconWatcher:

    It was one thing to be DCI in the 1950s or at the time of Allende; another thing entirely from 1976-77, when Poppy Bush did his stint.

    Two words: “Iran” and “Contra.”

  34. 34.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 8:39 am

    @Keith G:

    The one laudable thing he did while president was to listen to Dick Darman about abandoning that vile “pledge” he should never have made in 1988.

  35. 35.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 8:52 am

    @EconWatcher:

    As I recall, Molly Ivins credited him with voting for a civil rights law as a Texas congressman that royally POed his constituency.

    That vote was in ’68 and yes, Ivins did credit Bush for it in ’88. And then she said: “As it happens, that’s the last time I can remember him doing anything that required courage.”

    “Trouble with Bush is, he’s a lickspittle even when he has a choice. Go back to Watergate and look at his record.”

  36. 36.

    Keith G

    May 18, 2015 at 9:02 am

    @Cervantes: Well then, as much as I appreciate my fellow Texan, Molly, in this instance she might be sacrificing validity in pursuit of a zinger. Not an unknown occurrence in pundantry.

  37. 37.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 9:07 am

    @Keith G:

    Well, you could refute her illegitimate “zinger” with some relevant facts, I suppose.

  38. 38.

    ms_canadada

    May 18, 2015 at 9:47 am

    @David Koch: Oh, that would be sweet. That’s the stuff dreams are made of. (kinda-sorta in a twisted way)

  39. 39.

    weavrmom

    May 18, 2015 at 9:52 am

    Bushes’doings RMO ‘A Lanister always pays his debts.’ No matter how much any of them frack up, there’s always someone there to dust them off and push them forward, bc they are Bushes. Quite medieval.

  40. 40.

    Keith G

    May 18, 2015 at 9:54 am

    @Cervantes:Just so we are clear (as I know you value specificity), the issue is ” [1968] the last time I can remember him doing anything that required courage.”

    Two quick ones as I need to scoot to my gig at an AIDS hospice.

    He was told that working with the Democrats on the budget would mean war with the right wing of his party….

    On a more personal note, he supported and signed ADA. As an AIDS patient in the 90’s that was the most tangible thing that a US President had done to help me up until Obamacare. Considering the time, place, and circumstances, it may have been a bit bigger since it allowed me to feel and actually be secure in a job whose insurance policies were keeping me alive and whose income allowed me to thrive during tough times.

    Yeah, there is a lot of shit he did that I do not like, but I have never been an “All or Nothing” person. We are all a mixed bag.

  41. 41.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 9:57 am

    @Keith G:

    Thanks.

    But remember that, as I noted above, Molly was writing in 1988, whereas both your examples (one of which I cited myself) are from his subsequent time as president.

    And yes, I agree that the ADA was a good thing, but would you say that supporting it required courage?

    (And thanks also for your hospice work.)

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 18, 2015 at 10:00 am

    What a terrible chart. It looks like the CEO salaries are a little red sliver on the outside of the blob being eaten up by greedy kindergarten teachers!

  43. 43.

    Cervantes

    May 18, 2015 at 10:07 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Philip Bump is no Ed Tufte, that’s for sure.

    The original article in the Post contains a better chart but it also includes this idiotic one.

  44. 44.

    john fremont

    May 18, 2015 at 11:09 am

    @redshirt: This.

  45. 45.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    May 18, 2015 at 11:39 am

    @xenos:

    Well… isn’t that where the word “czar’ comes form – Caesar?

  46. 46.

    Keith G

    May 18, 2015 at 1:01 pm

    @Cervantes:

    but would you say that supporting it required courage?

    For a liberal or moderate, it would not, but GHWB was acting against the determined wishes of the most vocal and active portion of his base.

    BTW, signing ADA and the budget deal happened during the same calender year. There is a reason that there has not been a “moderate” Republican in a leadership role since ’41.

  47. 47.

    opiejeanne

    May 18, 2015 at 4:21 pm

    @Keith G: What was Ike?

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