Obama’s Secret Transition Team Can Take Unlimited Donations, Doesn’t Have To Disclose Anything
This is an unprecedented move by Obama, and it’s (perhaps not surprisingly giving the fawning reporting that surrounds everything he does) not being reported by the media.
Lost amid all of the jubilation of the Obama victory was the announcement by the Obama transition team that it had set up a separate transition program beyond the one that is paid for by the American taxpayer. Called the “Obama/Biden Transition Project,” it is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, with no limits on the contributions it can receive and no requirements to divulge the names of individuals or organizations that give it money.
Traditionally, the victorious campaign has set up inaugural funds, as well as funds to deal with legal costs and other expenses to close down the campaign. Others have set up quasi-corporate offices to deal with transition issues, such as in 2000, when, with the election in doubt, the Bush-Cheney team set up a private transition office in McLean, Virginia, covering the costs from campaign contributions and other fundraising. Ultimately, the federal government, headed by the Government Services Administration, covers the cost of the transition staff, providing it with office space and all equipment.
No one is certain that any political organization has ever set up a tax-exempt entity that would be shrouded in such secrecy, particularly when Obama claimed he would be more transparent about the way things were done.
“To my knowledge, it’s never been done, and people should be asking why the Obama people chose to do it this way,” says a longtime Washington Republican, who has been involved in transitions for the Reagan and Bush campaign teams.
From a campaign that accepted an unprecedented amount of money in small-dollar, non-disclosed contributions and was plagued by evidence of fraudulent fund raising to a President-elect who sets up secretive fund raising organization that doesn’t have to disclose anything. I don’t think anyone will ever accuse Barack Obama of being an “open government” candidate.
People should be asking questions about this. But the people whose job it is to ask those questions aren’t. Because they’re too busy patting themselves on the back for getting Obama elected.
(via Wing Chung Geologist)
