Previous posts detail the intimate connections between the President, and “Showdown in America” protest organizers SEIU and National People’s Action (NPA)

Digging a little deeper reveals some additional disturbing connections between President Obama, and other organizers of these mob actions. These connections might be of interest to any reporters who claim the White House as their beat.

Another key organizing force behind the “Showdown in America” is a group called Americans For Financial Reform. This group is headed by former SDS radical and proud Alinsky protege, Heather Tobis Booth.

Heather Tobis Booth is the founder of a group called USAction.

USAction used to be called Citizen Action, until the illegal behavior of  Rep. Jan Shakowsky’s husband, ex-con Bob Creamer (Obama Campaign Organizer), combined with the notorious “Teamstergate” scandal, forced the organization to collapse it’s national brand into a newly named entity. (This collapse and restructuring is the role model for ACORN’s transition today.)

In the video below, the president of USAction and Chair of Illinois Citizen Action, William McNary, openly glorifies and embraces a working relationship with the Communist Party of America (CPUSA).

In the first 1:20 seconds of the clip, you will hear the introducing speaker recount how included CPUSA felt during the founding convention of USAction.

Listening to the first 3:30 minutes in full, you will hear William McNary declare “I can’t think of anyplace else in the world I would rather be on a Friday afternoon then right here in a room full of aggressive Progressives.”

Heather Tobis Booth’s Marxist USAction spearheaded ObamaCare.

Several years ago, Heather Tobis Booth’s Citizen Action honored then Senator Barack Obama by asking him to offer a keynote address at one of their fundraisers. Of course their dear friend accepted.

Heather Tobis Booth was once the training director for the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration.

Heather Tobis Booth is a co-founder of a group called Campaign For America’s Future. Other founders include Andy Stern, Cloward and Piven, Jesse Jackson, leaders of various unions, and the Democratic Socialists of America.

Below is video of then Senator Barack Obama finding common cause in his rousing speech to members of Campaign for America’s Future:

Heather Tobis Booth, SEIU, NPA, the DNC, and the Democratic Socialists of America have a very long history of working together.

President Obama has long standing and deep relationships with these people, who organize law breaking mob actions on the streets of America.

More than one of these groups and their organizers have visited the Obama White House more than once, begging the question regarding these protest “actions”- what did the President know and when did he know it?

If the President of the United States is using the powers of the Executive Branch of government to help coordinate/facilitate mob actions against American citizens, would that be an impeachable offense? Would it at least warrant a couple of questions from the alleged White House Press Corps?

Unfortunately for America, the media has been filtering news for years and this practice has allowed some of the main figures in the Teamstergate scandal to assume top spots in the Democrat party. Part 1 of this series reviewed the history of the scandal and its strong ties to ACORN and President Obama.  In order to help readers fully appreciate the connections, I discuss below some of the major players in the Teamstergate saga who were named in indictments and a Congressional report on in a scheme that reached all the way into the White House.

The Congressional report, on Teamstergate, reached a number of damning conclusions that implicated organizations like Project Vote  and Citizen Action. It also raised a number of questions about campaign finance and “soft money” donations. Something that ACORN seemed concerned with as detailed in a spring blog post here. Were these questions raised by ACORN political director Zach Polett a result of the following statement in the Congressional report:

The issue of soft money abuses is inevitably tied to the question of how access to political figures is obtained through large contributions of soft money. It is also tied to the question of how tax-exempt organizations have been used to hide the identities of soft money donors. A system that permits large contributions to be made for partisan purposes, without public disclosure, invites subversion of the intent of our election law limitations.

Among the subjects covered in the report was the role the Teamsters and the rest of big labor expected Democrats and the Clinton administration to play in these schemes:

The Subcommittee concluded the following:

• From 1992 through the 1996 election cycle, the Teamsters waged a political campaign with a singular focus: to cultivate a strong, symbiotic relationship with the Clinton Administration and, more generally, the Democratic Party.

• The IBT coordinated the union’s political efforts with other labor unions, the White House, and supposedly “independent” non-profit organizations.

• IBT leadership appears to have linked political contributions to assistance from the politicians it supported

• In addition to millions of dollars in direct political contributions made from DRIVE, IBT leaders appear to have tapped general treasury funds for $18 million more, which they spent in support of Democratic political candidates through tax-exempt organizations that conducted get-out-the-vote and issue advocacy activities; these contributions had the intended effect of assisting Democratic candidates. Such contributions may have violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974.
• The IBT’s political action efforts contributed to the union’s near-bankruptcy.

The Graduating Glass of Teamstergate 1996: Where Are They Now?

Heather Booth

Role In Teamstergate: As I noted in part 1, Booth was a founder, co-director and president of Citizen Action, one of the nonprofits mentioned in the indictment of Ron Carey as being part of the Teamster money sway scheme.

The Obama Connection: At the same time Booth was also training young radicals through her Midwest Academy. An article entitled “Obama’s Third Way” explains the Obama,/Booth connection:

“William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action/Illinois, a coalition of labor, community and citizen groups, says, ‘Barack was not just willing to meet with community-based groups, not only to be a good vote for us, but he also strategized with us to help move our position forward.’”

“‘Now, as he campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama is drawing on his community-organizing experience, comparing his candidacy to a grass-roots project and frequently referring to lessons he learned as an organizer.

“‘He’s given community organizing a good name,’ remarks Jackie Kendall, executive director of the Midwest Academy, a Chicago-based organizer training center.”

“…even a natural needs some training and practice. Gerald Kellman, who first recruited Obama, taught him the basics, and he also learned from organizing trainers associated with the Gamaliel Foundation and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). Both organize community groups, primarily religious congregations, and trace their lineage to Saul Alinsky.”

“Gregory Galluzzo, a Gamaliel founder, was one of Obama’s teachers.”

ACORN Ties? Booth is clearly considered a friend of ACORN. She has been affiliated with such ACORN partners as MoveOn, Center for Community Change, HCAN and SEIU. Her husband Paul Booth’s ties to the Students for a Democratic Society (a group tied to ACORN founder Wade Rathke) are very telling. An article on FrontPage.com has the details:

“The current president of the SEIU is Andrew Stern, a former New Leftist who came out of the University of Pennsylvania.  One of the eulogies given at a Democratic Socialists of America memorial after the death of DSA co-founder Michael Harrington gave tribute  to ‘the people who worked with or fought with Mike who now staff high councils of the AFL, like Andy Stern of SEIU….’ Stern is one of many radical union organizers who came out of the Midwest Academy which was formed by SDS radicals Heather and Paul Booth to train community organizers and infiltrate the labor movement. Paul Booth who was a secretary-treasure of SDS is now the assistant to Gerald McEntee, a member of Al Gore’s kitchen cabinet in the 2000 campaign and the president of the other powerful government union, AFCSME. Heather is the guiding force of the radical organization ACORN …

Where Are They Now? According to her bio, Booth is:

• President of the Midwest Academy, training social change leaders and organizers.

• has been involved in and managed several political campaigns and was the Training Director of the Democratic National Committee.

• In 2000, she was the Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, which helped to increase African American election turnout by nearly 2 million voters.

• She was the first DC representative for MoveOn.org

• In 2008 she was the director of the Health Care Campaign for the AFL-CIO, organizing to win affordable high quality reform for all.

• She is on the board of USAction, NAACP National Voter Fund, and the Center for Community Change.

Doug Sosnik

Role in Teamstergate: According to the Congressional report “the genesis of the Teamsters’ strategy for that cycle appears to date back to 1992, when the union revamped its political action efforts with the help of key Democratic consultants and President Clinton’s top political aide, Doug Sosnik. Sosnik working directly with big labor and the report indicates a high level of coordination on Sosnik’s part:

“The emergence and execution of a pro-Democratic political agenda. From 1992 through the 1996 election cycle, the Teamsters waged a political campaign with a singular focus: to cultivate a strong, symbiotic relationship with the Clinton Administration and, more generally, the Democratic Party. The political agenda of the Teamsters’ leadership was shaped by, among others, Hal Malchow, a Democratic Party consultant, and Douglas Sosnik, President Clinton’s former Political Director (now Counselor to the President).

The Obama Connection: “A handful of top Clinton administration officials and a smattering of lower-ranking ones have taken up with Mrs. Clinton’s rivals for the Democratic nomination. Most cite pre-existing personal or professional loyalties…The highest-ranking defectors include a political aide who shadowed Mr. Clinton for years and is advising Senator Dodd of Connecticut, Douglas Sosnik…”

ACORN Ties? Sosnik’s ACORN ties may be indirect and relate to organizations such as the Center for American Progress or his previous relationship with the Unions.

Where Are They Now? According to SourceWatch, Sosnik has continued to play a key role in the Democrat party:

“Democrats are busy, too. Three former high-ranking aides of Clinton — Harold Ickes, Doug Sosnik and John D. Podesta — are working to set up a Democratic soft-money operation with the goal of running pro-Democratic issue ads. The three are part of the informal brain trust of former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.”

Harold Ickes

Role in Teamstergate: The New York Times covered Ickes involvement in Teamstergate:

“In their inquiry into the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Federal investigators are focusing on fund-raising by the Democratic Party in last year’s elections and on reported arrangements to funnel large sums of money improperly between the two organizations. Vote Now ‘96, which was based in Florida for last year’s elections, is also being examined by investigators for the Senate committee that is now holding hearings on campaign finance.

“The group has an established track record in registering voters and getting them to the polls. It must be nonpartisan to retain its tax-exempt status, but the organization’s focus on minority voters makes it a natural ally for the Democratic Party. In the 1996 elections, it attracted the attention of top Democratic campaign strategists, including Harold M. Ickes, who was a White House deputy chief of staff, and Donald L. Fowler, who was the Democratic national chairman…”

The Obama Connection: During the 2008 presidential race, the Obama campaign

“…paid $50,000, even though Mr. Ickes works for Mrs. Clinton and has been raising concerns about Mr. Obama’s electability as he courts superdelegates on her behalf.

‘We just hope that Harold’s data is better than his delegate math,’ Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said of the payments to Catalist.”

ACORN Ties? Ickes ties to big labor include ACORN “sister organization” SEIU and after Teamstergate Ickes helped with Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign:

Following Mrs. Clinton’s successful election to the United States Senate, Ickes played a central role in creating the Democrat Shadow Party. After passage of the McCain-Feingold Act of March 27, 2002, Ickes helped put Shadow Party architect George Soros together with activists Andrew Stern, Ellen R. Malcolm, Steven Rosenthal, Gina Glantz, Cecile Richards and other left-wing Democrats who were seeking ways to circumvent McCain-Feingold’s soft-money ban. Working closely with Soros, Ickes personally helped launch six of the seven organizations that formed the Shadow Party’s core during the 2004 election, including America Coming Together, America Votes, the Center for American Progress, Joint Victory Campaign 2004, the Media Fund, and the Thunder Road Group.

ACORN is part of this group co-founded by Ickes. ACORN insiders revel that Icke’s firm Catalist also has a business relationship with Project Vote.

Where Are They Now? Ickes’ fall from graces wasn’t too steep:

He is president of Catalist, a for-profit databank that sold its voter files to the Obama and the Clinton presidential campaigns for their get-out-the-vote efforts. With his equity stake in the firm, Mr. Ickes stood to benefit financially no matter which candidate became the Democratic nominee.

In creating Catalist, Mr. Ickes, who was deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House, formed a rare entity on the political scene, a for-profit limited-liability corporation that allows wealthy Democratic donors to help progressive organizations and candidates by investing in the company. And if Catalist, which has data on 230 million Americans, is successful as a business, these donors-turned-investors stand to reap financial returns from using their money to help elect Democrats.

In the case of Ickes we have to add a new category – Current Scandal.

“But some campaign finance watchdogs say they wonder whether Catalist was established not so much to make money but to find a creative way to allow big-money liberal donors to influence the election without disclosing the degree of their involvement or being subjected to other rules that would govern spending by an explicitly political organization.

“Catalist has raised over $11 million in venture capital, including more than $1 million from the billionaire financier George Soros, according to his aides. It also counts on such large unions as the Service Employees International Union and the A.F.L.-C.I.O., to buy its products and create revenues. And it plans to be the go-to source for voter data for a broad swath of groups often aligned with Democrats – like the Sierra Club, Emily’s List and Clean Water Action “

Tony Podesta

Role in Teamstergate: The Congressional report indicates that Tony Podesta was involved in one of the several schemes that connected back to the Clinton Administration.

“Tony Podesta, whom the IBT hired to lobby on issues concerning Diamond Walnut, also attempted to lobby the Department of Agriculture, the USTR, and members of Congress concerning the strike, the MPP, and the USTR’s other activities that benefited Diamond Walnut. Billing records subpoenaed by the Subcommittee indicate that Mr. Podesta met with staff members from the USTR’s office as early as February 1995 and continued contact with the USTR’s office at least through June 1995. Podesta contacted Peter Scher, Ambassador Kantor’s Chief of Staff, on several occasions. Among other things, Mr. Podesta wrote a June 19, 1995 memorandum to Mr. Scher identifying international trade-related issues under the USTR’s purview which were of importance to Sun-Diamond.801. In this memo Mr. Podesta stated that ‘any additional pressure you can put on Sun-Diamond would be very helpful.’”

The Obama Connection: Tony is the brother of John Podesta, who has served on the Obama transition team as well as has close ties to Obama.

ACORN Ties? Tony’s brother John was recently tapped to sit on the newly formed ACORN advisory council. John Podesta has extremely close ties to ACORN and has recently taken to defending them and attacking journalists for covering the story:

“CAP President John Podesta, who also sits on ACORN’s Advisory Council, said, ‘Accountability starts with knowing all the facts. ACORN, which is doing important work in advocating for lower-income Americans all across this country, is taking an important step today by acknowledging its need for reform and demonstrating its desire to take corrective action.’”

Where Are They Now? “As the Obama Administration and the new Congress took power, Tony Podesta was recognized as one of the shrewdest strategists and most important figures in a transformed governmental, economic, and media environment. Newsweek included Tony as one of eight of  ‘The DC Powers,’ branding him ‘The Lobbyist.’ The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times each listed Tony among the most important people in the nation’s capital. Additionally, Business Week featured The Podesta Group as one of seven of the ‘Lobbyists Likely to Thrive in the New Washington.’

Ira Arlook

Role in Teamstergate: Ira Arlook, director of Citizen Action and another ex-SDSer, has run up more than $200,000 in legal bills defending his organization against possible criminal charges over its Teamster money-laundering role. The scandal so damaged the fund-raising ability of Citizen Action’s national organization that the group just closed its Washington, D.C., office and laid off 20 staffers.

The Obama Connection: Arlook’s connections to Obama are directly tied to Heather Booth and Citizen Action. Arlook is also linked with Booth’s Midwest Academy and Columbia’s Frances Fox Piven.

ACORN Ties? Arlook is one of the founders of the Campaign for America’s future and CAF  helped create the Apollo Alliance. Arlook’s ties to Citizen Action and Heather Booth also link back to closes ties to ACORN and its affiliates.

Where Are They Now? At its March 2008 “Take Back America” conference in Washington, DC, CAF joined six fellow leftist organizations in announcing plans for “the most expensive [$350 million] mobilization in history this election season” — an initiative that focused on voter registration, education, and get-out-the-vote drives. The other members of CAF’s coalition included MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, ACORN, the National Council of La Raza, the Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO.

Arlook is also the managing director of Fenton Communications.

David Wilhelm

Role in Teamstergate: David Wihelm is another Clinton insider implicated in the scandal but with the help of the media, he appears to be back up to his old tricks. The federal investigation outline in the Congressional report ties Wilhelm back to big labor:

“The Clinton Administration appreciated these efforts. Shortly after the 1992 election, David Wilhelm, the President’s campaign manager, appeared before the GEB and “thanked the IBT for playing a major role in the Clinton campaign. Wilhelm noted that the IBT’s contribution to the campaign was different than many other organizations, because of its attention to grassroots work, including the Teamsters voter registration drive.”

When Wilhelm became the youngest chair of the DNC in 1993 he was in a perfect position to facilitate the scam on several levels.

The Obama Connection: Wilhelm was a 2008 superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. He supported Barack Obama’s candidacy and informally advised the Obama campaign.

Barack Obama’s website has a glowing review of Wilhelm’s decision to back the campaign:

‘Timing is(almost) everything. If David Wilhelm had declared for Obama a month ago, he would have hardly have been noticed, though he would certainly still have been helpful, as he will be now.

“But what a time for him to announce.

“He is, after all. former Clinton Campaign Manager, former head of the Democratic National Committee and SuperDelegate, at a time when their role has become such a part of this electoral drama.”

ACORN Ties? Wilhelm’s ties seem to be mostly with labor unions but his prior involvement in Teamstergate opens the door to a possible connection through one of the affiliates like Project Vote.

Where Are They Now? Wilhelm still commands respect in Washington and he is the:

“Founder and President of Woodland Venture Management, a company that raises and invests private equity in parts of the country that are underserved by the nation’s financial industry. Woodland has become one of the nation’s leading sources of capital in the Midwest and central Appalachia.

Wilhelm is best known for his political work, which has included managing campaigns for President Bill Clinton, Senator Paul Simon, Senator Joe Biden, Governor Rod Blagojevich, and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Robert Creamer

Role in Teamstergate: Creamer is not mentioned in the Congressional report, but was affiliated with Citizen Action and Heather Booth around the same time of the scandal. Creamer conveniently distanced himself from the group. Perhaps his wife’s political aspirations played a role in that decision. Creamer is married to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).

The Obama Connection: Creamer taught at “Camp Obama,” a week-long summer camp last month held at the presidential candidate’s office in Chicago for campaign interns and volunteers-just a few blocks away from the federal court where on August 31, 2005 he pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes…on charges brought by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

ACORN Ties? Intrepid blogger Trevor Loudon and the other bloggers have connected Creamer and his wife to labor and ACORN:

In November 2008 RBO connected some dots between USAction, of which Citizen Action Illinois is associated, and Health Care for America, which was launched in July 2008 by a coalition of the usual suspects:

ACORN, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn.org, National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, SEIU, United Food and Commercial Workers, and USAction.

Since, Creamer, a contributor at The Huffington Post has taken to defending ACORN with such titles as Time to Get Real About the ACORN “Controversy”–and Republican Double Standards

Where Are They Now? Creamer’s bio on the aforementioned Campaign for America’s future details how the Democrats take care of their own:

“Robert Creamer has been a political organizer and strategist for almost four decades. He and his firm, the Strategic Consulting Group, work with many of the country’s most significant issue campaigns. He was one of the major architects and organizers of the successful campaign to defeat the privatization of Social Security. He is a consultant to the campaigns to end the war in Iraq, pass universal health care, change America’s budget priorities and enact comprehensive immigration reform. His clients have included labor unions, public interest groups, and advocacy organizations like MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change and USAction. He has also worked on hundreds of electoral campaigns at the local, state and national levels.”

Terry McAuliffe

Role in Teamstergate: Testimony in the Teamstergate scandal given by high level Democrat officials implicated McAuliffe:

“A former Democratic official has testified that Terence McAuliffe, President Clinton’s friend and chief fund-raiser, played a major role in promoting an illegal scheme in which Democratic donors were to contribute to the Teamster president’s re-election campaign, and in exchange the Teamsters were to donate large sums to the Democrats.

The official, Richard Sullivan, the Democratic National Committee’s former finance director, testified in Manhattan at the trial of William Hamilton, the Teamsters former political director, that Mr. McAuliffe urged him and other fund-raisers to find a rich Democrat to donate at least $50,000 to the 1996 re-election campaign of Ron Carey, the former Teamsters president.”

The Obama Connection: Besides professing his love for Obama on air,  McAuliffe played a critical role in turning the state of Virginia blue for Obama:

“McAuliffe has agreed to campaign extensively for Obama in his longtime home state of Virginia — and he’s in discussions with Obama advisers about the possibility of doing as many as two dozen or more events, according to advisers to both men.

“Obama advisers say that McAuliffe will be pressed into service to advocate in particular for Obama’s health care plan. ‘Terry clearly has facility with the issue,’ says Kevin Griffis, Obama’s Virginia press rep, adding that the Obama camp is hoping for multiple events from McAuliffe. ‘People know him from his work with the Clinto’s, and he’s a passionate supporter. We feel like he’s someone who can talk to people from all walks of life.’

ACORN Ties? McAuliffe is tied to big labor and key players in the top levels of the DNC and the White House

Where Are They Now? After losing bid for governor in the primary, McAuliffe is an entrepreneur with a several ventures in Virginia. He’s also a bestselling author whose first book is entitled: What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals.

While reporters of the liberal media establishment are reluctant to report on the scandal of the “colleagues” from massive liberal and labor organizations, they are in effect ensuring that scandals will occur again.

ACORN and its partners were able to weather the investigation relatively unscathed, The Congressional report detailed the difficulties in collecting evidence or witnesses from the players involved. The Clinton Justice Department skirted around an investigation while the “nonprofits” regrouped and applied the lessons learned to new endeavors. The public must demand a real investigation that includes more that a report with recommendations. ACORN has had seventeen years to perfect strategy. The American public only has a small window left to push for RICO and Justice Department investigation, because at the top of this graduating class of political operators are a pair from Teamstergate who have had a working relationship dating back to 1992. In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Former President Bill Clinton says the right-wing conspiracy that attacked him during his presidency now is after President Obama.

Democrats–no strangers to major scandal–do not hesitate to divert attention away from the corruption and “pay to play” tactics being exposed or simmering just under the surface. Clinton deliberately inserted himself into a critically important national debate and thereby unwisely opened the tomb of similar scandals, potentially more explosive than his unwise dalliances with Monica Lewinsky.

For most of the 1990’s, the White House, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Citizen Action and ACORN’s Project Vote were embroiled in what would become known as “Teamstergate.”

That scandal involved disgraced former union crusader and Teamster national president Ron Carey. According to New York Times Archives:

Three of Mr. Carey’s campaign aides have pleaded guilty to a web of illegal fund-raising schemes, including having the union donate $735,000 to three liberal grass-roots groups for a get-out-the-vote effort during the 1996 Congressional elections. In return, those groups and their supporters were to channel money to Mr. Carey’s re-election campaign…

Insisting that he delegated decisions on political gifts, Mr. Carey repeatedly denied knowing about the large donations to the three liberal groups: Citizen Action, Project Vote and the National Council of Senior Citizens.

The Organizations Involved:

PROJECT VOTE

Project Vote, a supposedly non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization and Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) affiliate that used its highly touted voter registrations efforts for the Teamsters.

According to a Congressional Report

Project Vote is working hard to turn out minority voters in North Carolina, where Harvey Gantt is running close to defeating Sen. Jesse Helms.… All of our North Carolina locals are active in the effort to defeat Helms.… We have been asked to provide $75,000 to Project Vote. I can’t think of a more important goal anywhere in the country than to turn out a huge vote that helps defeat Helms….

The report summarized the exhibit memo this way:

The memorandum clearly demonstrates that the goal of IBT leadership was to help a particular candidate for federal office– Harvey Gantt – and not to support non-partisan GOTV efforts. Whether or not these contributions constitute the type of activity prohibited by FEC regulations, the contributions, at a minimum, violate the law’s apparent intent. What the IBT could not do directly – namely, spend treasury funds to help a particular candidate – it did through an ostensibly non-partisan GOTV organization.

THE TEAMSTERS

Particularly noteworthy is the date the Congressional report specified as the genesis of this cozy relationship:

The Teamsters’ political agenda led to the contribution swap schemes that corrupted the union’s 1996 elections. In 1992, IBT leaders began to develop close ties with the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Party, and, more specifically, with the Democratic-leaning organizations that ended up participating in the swap schemes, including Citizen Action, Project VOTE, and the National Council for Senior Citizens. Without these close relationships, it is doubtful that IBT leaders could have perpetrated the swap schemes that are now the subject of criminal proceedings in New York.

The Teamsters had a strong political hold in Chicago at the time. The report shows that the Teamster seemed to favor Project Vote and Citizen Action, by putting money and political power behind them. The Teamsters:

• donated $20,000 to the Illinois Hispanic Democratic Council for voter registration
• dedicated 100 phones to Project VOTE
• contributed $37,500 to a massive GOTV phone banking operation run by Project VOTE bringing over 600,000 newly registered voters to the polls;
• staffed national GOTV phone bank [run] out of IBT headquarters
• worked with retirees
• handled security for President Clinton and Vice President Gore
• organized bus caravans for the candidates
• established a “War Room” at IBT headquarters

CITIZEN ACTION

About that time a young organizer finished his training at the Midwest Academy under the tutelage of Heather Booth.

In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.

At the same time Booth “directed the Field Operation for Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley Braun’s successful run for the U.S. Senate.” More on Booth shortly. That organizer was now President Obama and his association with Project Vote/ACORN could not have come at a better time. While Obama was busy registering voters, Project Vote had the backing of a powerful labor union, the Democrat party and even the Clinton White House:

During early 1995, the Teamsters, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, Citizen Action, and the National Council of Senior Citizens created ‘The ’95 Project’ (also known as ‘Project ’95′),  ’to develop a local progressive coalition…

Project ’95 may have had close ties to the White House. Individuals affiliated with Project ’95 briefed senior White House officials about the plan, including the fact that the goal behind the project was ‘to take back the Congress.’

The Subcommittee notes that White House communications with Project VOTE began at least a year earlier, and that Mr. Carey has stated that the IBT ‘worked in coordination with’ Project VOTE, Citizen Action and other advocacy groups on ‘many… different campaigns.’”

Citizen Action, co- founded by Heather Booth, whose appearance at ACORN 39^th Anniversary Celebration was spotlighted by Glenn Beck.

Booth trained activists like the young Obama in Chicago, maintained extensive ties with ACORN and played a major role in the moving parts of Teamstergate according to the Congressional report:

Six months before the formation of ‘Project ‘95,’ just shortly after the Republicans captured control of Congress, Citizen Action drafted a plan entitled ‘Campaign ‘96 to Reclaim the House of Representatives.’  The plan instructed participants to: ‘Build coalitions… of our traditional allies; agree on a target list of vulnerable House Republicans; and pool our resources to be as effective as possible in each district.’

THE DNC

The Congressional report delved deeper into the plan and found that through her connections with the DNC and the Unions, Booth was rewarded with training activists like Obama across the country. Karen Innman of the ACORN 8 attended such a program in Chicago in 2001.

Congressional report:

Just days after that plan was written, Heather Booth – a founder, co-director and president of Citizen Action – drafted a memorandum to three Democratic National Committee staff members that discussed field mobilization during the 1995 and 1996 elections. The memo lists seven organizations, including two unions and Citizen Action, that ‘will commit substantial resources for some version of a targeted Congressional District mobilization. Each of these groups will want to make their own presentation to the White House with their own plan….

The DNC had close links to Citizen Action throughout the 1996 campaign. For example, Heather Booth served as DNC training director. In that position, she coordinated DNC-operated training centers for party activists at various sites around the country.“

If at First You Don’t Succeed:

2004-2008

For those who have been paying attention, there is an eerie sense of deja vu as  one compares efforts in the 2008 presidential campaign to the DNC’s efforts in the 90’s.

Luckily for Clinton, the media focused on unpopular HillaryCare, Monica’s dress and Whitewater and he extricated himself from these problems, winning re-election and avoiding removal from office as Hillary stood by her man and blasted the right and the Clinton machine vilified his critics..

The Congressional report offers a stunning but familiar assessment of its findings:

In the end, of course, their plan was an astonishing success: the Democratic Party raised three times as much money for the 1996 election as it had for the 1992 contest, and President Clinton was re-elected. The President’s success, however, came at a steep price. In the frenzied drive to raise such large amounts of campaign money, the Democratic Party dismantled its own internal vetting procedures, no longer caring, in effect, where its money came from and who was supplying it. Worse, their campaign eviscerated federal fundraising laws and reduced the White House, key Administration offices, and the Presidency itself, to fundraising tools

This increasingly mercenary approach also led the Democratic Party to view America’s ethnic communities as exploitable ‘renewable resources’ for political fundraising.

Sound familiar? See BigGovernment.com. Using the lesson learned in the 1990’s, ACORN/Project Vote and Citizen Action re-branded and started over. Project Vote remained relatively unscathed while the media and investigators failed to mention ACORN’s ties to Project Vote.

THE SHADOW PARTY

Taking the lesson and indictment to heart, some Democrats became more organized in their quest to pull America to the far left. New organizations were created with what seemed to be the express purpose of providing the appearance of legality to their endeavors. The same operations remained in place behind the scenes with new front groups. Discover the Networks has the scoop:

The so-called ‘Shadow Democratic Party’ or ‘Shadow Party‘ is a nationwide network of non-profit activist groups, whose agendas are ideologically to the left, which are engaged in campaigning for the Democrats. Its activities include fundraising, get-out-the-vote drives, political advertising and covert operations (including opposition research, media manipulation and ‘dirty tricks’).

The Shadow Party was conceived and organized principally by George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Harold McEwan Ickes – all identified with the Democratic Party left.

In its mix of more than five-dozen unions, activist groups and think tanks, the Shadow Party has built a mighty coalition, marrying the youthful energy of the MTV generation with the ideological fervor of New Left activists who cut their political teeth in the battles of the 1960s with the ruthless tactics and financial power of New Labor, whose flagship unions – the SEIU and the AFSCME – have managed to thrive while other unions shrink, through the ingenious expedient of organizing workers in the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy: the government workforce. Many of the political strategists and operatives spearheading this government union movement are veterans of the New Left themselves.

Notable affiliate organizations of the Shadow party include John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, ACORN, Media Matters and MoveOn.org.

History Repeating itself?

2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

 During the 2007-2008 election cycle, ACORN and Project Vote launched an extensive voter registration program in battleground states. However, behind the scenes extensive coordination seemed to be occurring between the Obama Campaign, Citizens Services Inc. (an affiliate of ACORN) and Project Vote. Obama and his campaign have denied the ties, but payments made to CSI have been called into question:

…But the Obama campaign didn’t appear eager to discuss the candidate’s ties to Acorn. Its press operation vividly denied Mr. Obama had been an Acorn trainer until the New York Times uncovered records demonstrating that he had been. The Obama campaign also gave Citizens Consulting, Inc., an Acorn subsidiary, $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as ’staging, sound, lighting,’ only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.

In addition to this coordination, ACORN and Project Vote have a laundry list of activities that parallel Teamstergate:

1. Project Vote has violated its 501(c)(3) status by using government and private grants that ultimately go directly or indirectly to ACORN.

2. ACORN, Project Vote and Citizens Services Inc. (CSI) are essentially the same organization with different tax designations that are used to facilitate the transfer of money between the affiliate organizations.

3. ACORN has promoted a culture of dishonesty motivated by reaching target Voter Registration goals and senior staff have portrayed an attitude that allows for some ‘bad’ cards in order to reach these goal.

4. Karyn Gillette, Project Vote Development Director, Jeff Robinson, senior Project Vote ‘money man’ and Mr. Henderson-James was “Research Director for Project Vote while simultaneously serving as part of ACORN political operations.” It appears that they are all employed or in some way paid by CSI and may have worked directly with anyone seeking the services of CSI; and money paid to CSI would have obvious ACORN ties.

5. Zach Polett, former Executive Director of Project Vote and former director of ACORN Political Operations mentioned that Obama had worked for ACORN and that he even supervised him during a ACORN Political staff retreat in November 2007.

In late 2007, Project Vote received a call from the Obama campaign asking if this was the same Project Vote that Obama worked for in the 90’s. Zach Polett, Karyn Gillette, Nathan Henderson James, and Kevin Whelan were notified by email that the campaign wanted someone to call them back regarding some media questions that were being asked at the time. Karyn Gillette would later produce a donor list and infer that she direct contact with the Obama campaign and had obtained their donor lists. This meeting took place sometime in November of 2007 and may have even been a conference call between the campaign and Project Vote. The purpose of the Obama donor list was for the cultivation of maxed out donors who could give to the voter registration drive that was being run by ACORN.

Media Bias

No Democrat scandal is complete without the media acting as accomplices. As the current push for health care by the mainstream media indicates, newspapers are a loyal bunch. When disgraced Teamster Ron Carey died in 2008, the New York Times and Washington Post downplayed his fall as a mere ‘campaign finance’ problem. The papers took great pains to highlight his works as a crusader and reformer.

New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom had to be informed of Teamstergate by yours truly in 2008, although The Times had done a number of stories on Ron Carey. If New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt had checked The Times’ own archives, he would been able to find a pattern of behavior by Project Vote that clearly mirrored the evidence provided to Strom before she was told to “stand down” by her editors.

The media has played a key role in covering up the connections between the key people associated with Teamstergate, ACORN and Obama.

To summarize: ACORN/Project Vote, the Unions (SEIU made its grand political debut in this report), Citizen Action, the DNC and Obama. All the makings of a tremendous political scandal. Part two of this article will highlight the political players from the Teamstergate/Clinton era who have found their way into the Obama fold while still maintaining close ACORN ties and cover provided for them by the media.