White House Opens Door to Big Donors, and Lobbyists Slip In

[BlueStateSaint]

But I thought that this wasn't going to happen in Hopey McChangeSnorter's administration! 

However, the big news in this isn't that it's happening, it's where it's being reported--and who is corroborating the story.  (more below, after the firve paragraphs.)



White House Opens Door to Big Donors, and Lobbyists Slip In



Invitations to state dinners and other exclusive White House events have long been a reward to big contributors.

By MIKE McINTIRE and MICHAEL LUO
 
Published: April 14, 2012

Last May, as a battle was heating up between Internet companies and Hollywood over how to stop online piracy, a top entertainment industry lobbyist landed a meeting at the White House with one of President Obama’s technology advisers.

The lobbyist did not get there by himself.

He was accompanied by Antoinette C. Bush, a well-connected Washington lawyer who has represented companies like Viacom, Sony and News Corporation for 30 years. A friend of the president and a cousin of his close aide Valerie B. Jarrett, Ms. Bush has been to the White House at least nine times during his term, taking lobbyists along on a few occasions, joining an invitation-only forum about intellectual property, and making social visits with influential friends.

At the same time, she and her husband, Dwight, have donated heavily to the president’s re-election effort: Mr. Bush gave $35,800 on the day of his wife’s White House meeting last year, and Ms. Bush contributed the same amount a month later. In November, they hosted a $17,900-a-plate fund-raiser at their home, where Mr. Obama complained that the nation’s capital should be more “responsive to the needs of people, not the needs of special interests.”

“That is probably the biggest piece of business that remains unfinished,” the president said, as about 45 guests dined under a backyard tent.


The rest is at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/us/politics/white-house-doors-open-for-big-donors.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp

Of all of the people to go along with this, later on in the article, Patrick Kennedy agrees with the practice.

[formerlurker]

I can't believe this is a NYT story.

“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want to make sure I do my part.”

Dang patches, that is quite the quote to give to the press.   

[obumazombie]

This is the crew that let the Salahis illegally have access to the White House.