The NY Times has a new
article out finding additional suspicious names given for
people making a series of small contributions under $200. I was
surprised that the Times would run such an article, but the more
I read, the more it became clear how guilty the paper was for
having run something that raised any questions about Obama, so
there's a series of passages in which the paper is sure to point
out that it isn't suggesting the donations wouldn't involve
fraud, and at no point does the article mention the most serious
potential problem with the contributions -- that they could allow
foreign donors to influence American elections. We already know,
for instance, that the Obama campaign had to return $33,000 to
two Palestinian brothers in Gaza who had placed a bulk
t-shirt order. This came on top of an Al Jazeera report of
Palestinians in Gaza phonebanking for Obama.
In just a few days of analysis, the Times was able
to come up with 3,000 questionable donations including $40,000
worth of shady contributions merely by eyeballing suspicious
names. That suggests to me that that there would be a whole heck
of a lot more going on if you went through Obama's universe of
2.5 million donors and began challenging each one, especially if
he disclosed the donors who donated under $200, which is not
required by law.
Some of my favorite lines in the Times piece:
It is unclear why someone making a political donation would want
to enter a false name. Some perhaps did it for privacy reasons.
Another, more ominous possibility, of course, is fraud, perhaps
in order to donate beyond the maximum limits....
Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, highlighted the
more than 2.5 million donors it had to wade through. "We have
been aggressive about taking every available step," he said, "to
make sure our contributions are appropriate, updating our systems
when necessary."
But even a contributor who used the name "Jgtj Jfggjjfgj," and
listed an address of "thjtrj" in "gjtjtjtjtjtjr, AP," was able to
contribute $370 in a series of $10 donations in August.
A pair of donors named "Derty West" and "Derty Poiiuy," who
listed "rewq, ME" as their addresses and "Qwertyyy" or
"Qwerttyyu" as either their employer or occupation, contributed a
combined $1,110 in July.
topics:
Law
