by Jonathan Larsen and Ken Olshansky
(crossposted from MSNBC's "Open Channel" blog)
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.”
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.
CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.
According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”
The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, “should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.”
Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.
Jeff Sigmund, an ABA spokesperson, confirmed that the association got the memo. “Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” he said in a statement to "Up."
CLGC did not return calls seeking comment.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo. But he responded to its characterization of Republicans as defenders of Wall Street by saying, “My understanding is that President Obama is the single largest recipient of donations from Wall Street.”
On “Up” Saturday, Anita Dunn, Obama campaign adviser, responded by saying that the majority of the president’s re-election campaign is fueled by small donors. She rejected the suggestion that the president himself is too close to Wall Street, saying “If that’s the case, why were tough financial reforms passed over party line Republican opposition?”
The CLGC memo raises another issue that it says should be of concern to the financial industry -- that OWS might find common cause with the Tea Party. “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”
The memo outlines a 60-day plan to conduct surveys and research on OWS and its supporters so that Wall Street companies will be prepared to conduct a media campaign in response to OWS. Wall Street companies “likely will not be the best spokespeople for their own cause,” according to the memo. “A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.”
Part of the plan CLGC proposes is to do “statewide surveys in at least eight states that are shaping up to be the most important of the 2012 cycle.”
Specific races listed in the memo are U.S. Senate races in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada as well as the gubernatorial race in North Carolina.
The memo indicates that CLGC would research who has contributed financial backing to OWS, noting that, “Media reports have speculated about associations with George Soros and others.”
"It will be vital,” the memo says, “to understand who is funding it and what their backgrounds and motives are. If we can show that they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent it will undermine their credibility in a profound way.”
Jonathan Larsen (@jtlarsen) is executive producer of "Up w/ Chris Hayes"; Ken Olshansky (@kenolshansky) is a producer for the show.
Leave a Comment:
Excellent info. Chris. I have been watching you since I saw you on Rachel Maddow and I LOVE your take on matters.
You are doing a GREAT JOB not only getting the info out there; but making sense on where we are attempting/intending to go from here with EXCELLENT suggestions.
Keep up the good works my man.
Lovies Dawn Newton
These are the kinds of news items that demonstrate the dependency Americans have on the media and why our news outlets should revert to journalistic standards and be responsible in what they air and what they endorse when they air it. Many analysts and/or journalists appear not all willing to acknowledge, as Steele himself, an MSNBC analyst cannot bring himself to scrutinize his own party, even when their actions go against the good of the people, which is 99% of the time.
I agree. Additionally, will we see coverage of this report/memo on MSM like NBC's Today, Meet the Press, or Nightly News? The point made by Harris-Perry becomes even more relevant when the kinds of news reported is so controlled by corporate media...look how long it took for OWS to get coverage on the nightly news on all networks. Another question - if Comcast/GE/etc. really want to inform the public, why don't they make MSNBC part of their Basic Cable plans like they've given FOX? Talk about levelling the playing field.
Just a note: the Michael Steel quoted in the article is not the same person as the Michael Steele who is an MSNBC analyst and former RNC chair.
KUDOS to Chris Hayes. At Rachel's suggestion we taped Up With Chris Hayes early this a.m. In case ANYONE on planet earth had any doubt the Goliaths are coming to slay the Davids. Exposing the law firm of Clark, Lytle, Gedulig and Cranford of is one of the GREATEST media efforts to impart JUSTICE to our people I have ever seen and shows you the power of both Cable and the Internet. I will check the document out that the firm of Clark, Lytle sent which it seems exposes the treachery of the banksters through this one firm and this one memo and we assume there are hundreds like it using other firms, against the people and the Occupy Wall Street movement. I WILL send it around to my politial allies and many will send it around to theirs.
I spare no one not even those on the left who do not meet up to my high standards. You, Rachel and your colleagues including people like Melissa Harris Perry and the commentators like Keith and soon Cenq have NEVER disappointed me. The progressives at MSNBC and Current are in the process of saving lives and saving our country along with them.
You are ALL party of my daily routine.
Amen. Hats off!
You are proof that liberalism is a disease of the mind.
Speaking as one who knows oh tertiary syphilis sufferer?
Seems that the $850k is being spent, in part, on Paid Trolls.
Has it dawned on the banksters that the more they fight us, and the more they have their paid servants fight us, the more the general public takes note of the problems being protested?
Where there's smoke...
You mean that a lobbying group whose business it is to represent the political interests of the banking industry actually decided to put together a plan to discredit the industry's sworn enemies? How insidious!
And the lobbyists' clients actually received a copy of that plan, and went so far as to actually read it, even though they decided to do nothing about it? How cravenly corrupt!
Don't these people realize that, by virtue of the fact that they are part of the "status quo," their industry is inherently evil? That it has no right to defend itself politically? That it has no right to even exist, for crying out loud? By now they certainly should know that they have no rights of the sort that belong to, well, you know, people.
Don't they realize that these poor, defenseless Occupy movement protesters have absolutely no one—except, well, maybe George Soros...MoveOn.org...just about every Hollywood actor, director, or producer who might give to causes like Occupy...and maybe a few million others—to come to their aid with plans and means of political propagandizing that might equal those of the bankers' lobbyists?
Chris, I gotta hand it to you: when you're right, you're right. Who knows what kind of memos are circulating, what kinds of plans are being developed, and what kinds of alliances are being forged behind closed doors even as I type these words into this little combox! I mean, like, maybe even my little comment here is part of some huge conspiracy. Maybe even your exclusive piece here is.
Like, who knows?
That's right, I don't believe that corporations deserve the same level of rights as, well, you know, people
The 99% are not the banking industry's "sworn enemies" - they are its customers who are asking/demanding the industry not allow greed and fraud to direct its policies and actions to all of our detriment, continue the practices that caused the economic meltdown of 2002-8, or buy influence to keep a consumer protection agency and other regulating bodies from doing their jobs - to protect us and the financial industry from not acting in the best interests of all of us. Look at the language of the letter from the firm - conspiratorial? If it walks like a duck...
The 99% are not the banking industry's "sworn enemies" - they are its customers who are asking/demanding the industry not allow greed and fraud to direct its policies and actions to all of our detriment, continue the practices that caused the economic meltdown of 2002-8, or buy influence to keep a consumer protection agency and other regulating bodies from doing their jobs - to protect us and the financial industry from not acting in the best interests of all of us. Look at the language of the letter from the firm - conspiratorial? If it walks like a duck...
Like maybe you could point one out to us?
Who knows.
It just goes to show that despite all the hand-wringing about how OWS doesn't have a message, they're all just a bunch of dirty hippies, etc, they are having a real effect. Wall Street's starting to worry that they might not be able to rig the economy and the political system in their own favor quite as much anymore.
And yes, the fact that you refer to human beings who are tired of being screwed over as the industry's "sworn enemies" is telling.
If corporations (groups of people) do not share the rights that belong to individual people, then neither do groups of people who camp out on, trash, defecate upon (giving a whole new meaning, or a very old one, to "movement"), etc. private property—like the Occupiers.
So corporations are people, but protestors are not.
Don Quixokie:
You wrote: "So corporations are people, but protestors are not."
Is English your first language? How can you even remotely get anything within 1,000 miles of that from anything I wrote?
It is everything you have written, distilled down to its purest essence. You goddamn sock puppet.
Spoken like a true 'in denial, would rather sit on their ass and watch TV than admit there is a big problem in the country let alone do anything about it' kid of guy. Oh no, no don't get up just keep sitting on your ass writing witty comments in defense of a segment of people that could give a crap about you. When the Occupy movement succeeds and we are able to make some progress towards wealth and political equality and your life becomes exponentially better because of it, just remember we told you so. And you're welcome.
If the Occupiers get their way, our country will be exponentially worse off than it's ever been. That's why I do more than just sit around and watch TV.
Ron, make the world a better place and JUST stay home and watch TV.
Maybe people who own or manage corporations could be allowed some rights other people have, some freedom to speak, and some limited ability to donate to political campaigns, as long as they were first segregated in special neighborhoods and forced to wear identifying tattoos or yellow stars? Just for transparency's sake, so we know who they are.
This makes me absolutely gleeful. They're scared of OWS, and they don't understand it well enough to effectively counter it. "Many of the hallmarks of a well-funded effort" my ASS. They are literally incapable of understanding what a grassroots movement looks like, because they don't have the support of regular citizens and never have.
They are hoping it can be treated like an octopus and that if harpooned through the head, it will die. Like would happen to the Tea Party movement if anything untoward happened to the Kochs or Dick Army.
This is not an astro-turf political puppet movement. There is no Americans for Prosperity equivalents bussing in protestors, nobody equivalent to Sarah Palin drawing down megabucks to speak at these protests. Afilliated members can be slimed to hell and back and it won't change the protesters' grievances and it won't demoralize the movement. All it does is domenstrate the massive power and corruption of the opposition. Take one down, a dozen will spring up in their place. You want to see this get REALLY radical? Call in the National Guard! Just the THREAT of it caused all manner of trouble for Scott Walker. Watch!
Projection on your part I am afraid. Your assessments of who is more AstroTurf than whom is parochial, and is even part of the problem. The tax predator ruling class is angry that the upstart Kochs and Armeys dare to criticize the American military empire, the Federal Reserve banks, the bailouts, and all the other parts of the welfare warfare state the tea parties sometimes criticize and that the Occupistas might finally get around to criticizing.
They are perfectly happy for you MSNBC drones to ask for more student loan bennies and bailouts, just as they were happy to have the government create fiat credit and loan it to marginal borrowers for mortgages. They are first at the trough for new money, before it causes inflation in consumer prices, and many asset prices, and they own the assets, just inflate too, even though pensions and fixed incomes don't always do so. Your litle chorus sings their song and helps redistribute wealth to people lime Warren Buffet or George Soros, who will be trading government bonds and speculating on currency devaluations your debt funded statist programs generate.
I live in one of the reddest of red states, Montana, and we could use some help here.
In the great Falls Tribune 11/18 edition, a story about 50 protesters gathered at on end of a bridge that has been already replaced and needs to be torn down. The demonstration was in concert of the 2 month b-day in support of OWS, and lasted about 1 hour. In the comments section were many posts for and against the movement, but the reality here is there is little support for OWS and less commitment .
5 hours ago I posted information about your story here today that will go largely ............(as of yet no response )unnoticed. Please help us Chris.
The help I'm asking for here is for some kind of report, man, just give us a 20 second sound byte, anything would help, about a planned and permitted parade in Billings on thanks giving day. A reporter with a camera would be a bit much to ask, but it would also be awesome
We need a boost, here's a link to the facebook page for Occupy Billings.
Thank you in advance for ANY consideration.
James Mason
Big Sandy, Mt.
My link would not post so look for : Walk with occupy Billings in the Billings Holiday Parade.
It's hard to understand why behavior like this -- offering to influence elections and damage reputations for a fee -- is not prosecutable under some anti organized crime legislation somewhere on the books.
Ratf***king. Its not illegal if you own judges and politicians. Nothing is.
So you are saying everyone at MSNBC and Acorn and Of a and Mmfa etc should be perp walked to prison because they seek to influence elections and damage reputations? And theydo it for a living? David Brock lives in a $2 million house on California Street in Kalorama from doing this, David Gregory lives in a $2 million house on Dexter Street in Foxhall DC with his Fannie Mae lobbyist wife, Rachel Maddow lives in a $1.25 million condo on Jane Street in the West Village, Chris Matthews lives in a $2 million house on Kirke Street in Chevy Chase, Maryland, Andrea Mitchell lives on a street of multimillion dollar houses in Kent in DC with former Federal Reserve banker Alan Greenspan. And you check their zip codes against census websites you will learn that they all live in areas with virtually no black people ( come to think of it, like many Occupy encampments), even though the cities they are in are often majority black.
Good thing MSNBC finally got ole Rev Al to add some color to the all white anchor line up. Now if they could just teach him how to correctly pronounce well known names like Koch or Coulter. Perhaps a phonetic TelePrompTer?
John Mason...if you knew Ex-Governor Gary Johnson...you would know that he was the worst Governor in New Mexico history. He is a businessman all the way. He cut social programs and fought wage increases for a State with the lowest income level in the Union. He got gambling casinos started by making deals with Native Americans for their vote... No-one knows him outside NM and we don't want to anymore...
That is interesting and warrants looking into, so I'll be looking. For a republican candidate he's still the best.
Do you have any pointers on where I might see these charges you claim?
Thanks Bill............. :-o)
A quick look at Wikipedia,does not support your claim, as a matter of fact, it does more to bolster my support for Mr.Johnson.
Again I would ask:Do you have any pointers on where I might see these charges you claim?
His tenure as Governor ended with term limits, as ALL
political careers should.
And I'll leave you with this:
According to one New Mexico paper, "Johnson left the state fiscally solid," and was "arguably the most popular governor of the decade . . . leaving the state with a $1 billion budget surplus." The Washington Times has reported that when Johnson left office, "the size of state government had been substantially reduced and New Mexico was enjoying a large budget surplus."
So sad when people must lie. Maybe MSNBC will hire you to help Madcow with her "research"? She once did a story on m blog claiming I was from Maine. I visited there once for 3 days. A simple phone call to me, or reading what was in front of her would have cleared it p.
How many Oxford Dons do you have to blow to get a PhD when you cannot read?
I don't understand how you can do an entire segment on Romney's statement about exceptionalism in which he also invoked freedom and not talk about a foreign policy that is neoliberal. Romney isn't thinking about big ideas like sovereignty and doing the right thing by an Iranian thug. He's thinking - much closer to home - about clearing the way for more business for American corporations who make their money on invasions, war and 'freeing' Iranian national business interests for ownership by foreign corporations. That's basically what Bush's provisional government did in Iraq. That's the real story with Iran too, but none of your guests came close to speaking about this.
They've got to present it as a thing that would make Jesus start crying.
Given the incredible stupidity of the American people, that shouldn't be too hard to do.
LOL! But give us some credit, we "incredibly stupid Americans" are getting off facebook and our lived in couches and are FINALLY protesting in the streets--which is loooong over due. We're tired of bending over and taking from the 1%, now if only we could make some real political changes--our top priority should be overturning Citizens United, the root of most of our problems: money in politics.
Eye-opening post at Politicalgates re: cops pepper-spraying peaceful protesters; PR-firm against OWS; New Generation Identification (NGI); and George Carlin's prophetic words:
And a huge hat-tip to Linda1961 for this 21st century update:
"First they came for the hippies,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a hippy.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Iraq War veterans,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't an Iraq War Veteran.
Then they came for the 84 year old ladies,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't 84 years old.
Then they came for the pregnant ladies,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't pregnant.
Then they came for the college students,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't in college.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
First they came for the dogmatic intolerant douchebags.
Then nobody came for anyone anymore because there were no more dogmatic intolerant douchebags.
I thought this woman's name was Rachel Maddow.
Just for everyone's information, here are all the listed emails from Clark Lytle's website, just in case anybody wants to volunteer some information:
clark@clgcdc.com
lytle@clgcdc.com
geduldig@clgcdc.com
cranford@clgcdc.com
judy@clgcdc.com
wren@clgcdc.com
geller@clgcdc.com
parker@clgcdc.com
Grimm,
Now why would you want to pull a dirty, rotten,low down,mean and nasty trick like that?
I pledge 3 emails..........to each addy
nice work.
James Mason
Chris, you are a true journalist and reporter! Perhaps you'll be an inspiration to all the others who are just shills. Your show needs to be moved to prime-time! Congratualations for a job well-done!
Contact info for this PR firm offering banks to destroy Occupy for $850k is as follows:
tel. 202-628-0028 * fax 202-628-2589
email: info@clgcdc.com
GO!!!
Excellent show ... setting the DVR .... I'm hooked ... Melissa Harris-Perry and Laura Flanders are awesome guests ... please stay on the OWS story ... this movement is not going away ... the fact is both political parties are corrupt ... neither represent the American people ... and the people are now waking up to that fact ... we need an alternative ... Progressive Party ... as a counter balance to corporate influence ....
The hater sound just like a regular Repub and their current Presidential challengers- Make no sense, just make noise..
The authors:
Sam Geduldig
(202) 997-3363
Fax: (202) 628-2589
geduldig@clgdc.com
Jay Cranford
(202) 628-0028
cranford@clgdc.com
Fax: (202) 628-2589
There is no need to undermine a group so full of ignorance, anti-semitism, violence, drug use, rapes, thefts, terrorist threats, anti-American values... not to mention @!$%#ting in the streets and on cop cars There is no credibility to discredit there.
Yes, the Tea Parties always have been out of hand. Something really needs to be done about them.
True. Occupy has destroyed itself. It wasn't sufficiently educated, like the rest of the left, to have a real critique of corporate statism. You peeps should google Roy Childs essay "Big business and the rise of American statism"
Chris, great job! We need more unbiased journalism at this time more than any other in history!
My question to you, and all of your fellows in the media, is :
Why do you never mention any of the other GOP candidates? With 16 declared candidates on the GOP website,Why do we only ever hear about the front running group of Republican Retards? Perhaps if the general population new anything about the others in the race their poll numbers would be higher!!!!!!!!!! There is a good chance that among the Unreported Candidates there might be one viable candidate that is not preordained by the corporation!!!
Why do none of these Names:
Former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson
Political Consultant & Gay Rights Activist Fred Karger
Self Professed Peoples Attorney General Andy Martin
Former Mayoral and Gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan
Career Flight Attendant Tom Miller
Former Governor of Louisiana Buddy Roemer
Businessman Vern Wuensche
Supporter of People not Parties Matt Snyder
Ever Cross Your Lips?
The People have a right to equal reporting of all their options!!!
No doubt you are right. But if Jon Huntsman has been ruled out as a front runner for being entirely too sane, what chance do they have?
We are talking about people who cheer for executions and boo gay Iraq veterans. These people deserve a chance, but most of the people who voting for them are not sane.
These people are all kept out by the gatekeepers of the state licensed news media, including NBC.
Fox has actually been best, with some elements there at least covering Gary Johnson. Johnson has outpolled Santorum and Huntsman even when excluded from all but two debates. But he powers that be do not want him to have a chance at a Cain or Gingrich style surge.
He supports gay marriage, free immigration, and cutting the defense budget by 45%, as well as no ballots, spending cuts, and a balanced budget.
And we should believe a R politician, why? When Young Bush opened his mouth, i would cringe, knowing he was either a) lying or b) telling us the truth. Either way he was a scary character. I tend to consider all the R candidates in the same light. So far, I've not seen any problems with that rule of thumb.
Prove to me Johnson supports gay marriage, free immigration(!!!!), and cutting defense (actually, the war dept.) by 45%. No ballots? Now that is a frightening thought in a democracy. Balanced budget? Balanced how? A Constitutional amendment would certainly put the nation i in a tough spot if we actually had to fight another war with a foreign country, considering that the other countries who make all our 'stuff' would raise the prices on war materiel.(pardon the missing accent mark, please). How would we pay the bills with no national credit card? Spending cuts? In what areas?
Words, just words. They mean what the reader wants them to mean, not necessarily what the speaker means when using them.
NICE TRY, but no thanks: the democrats are in it just as well as the republicans, they are both 1%. In fact in 2008's elections, Wall St. supported Obama and right now he's circled by big bankers. OWS is rioting against the system, won't be sucked in it.
I really hope not. Maybe there needs to be People's Party representing the concerns of Occupiers and the 99percent, or the Democrats need to move a few miles to the Left.
Wall Street has nothing to fear if it starts to live the values of America. The reason why they are fearful is because they know they did wrong during the financial meltdown. While all the protests are underway, Wall Street should use this as a teachable moment to reflect on who they are, how they fit into the American system of values and responsibility and where they go from herein on. If they do not do this, they will forever be challenged and second-guessed by the American people, principled clients of theirs, and ultimately Congress. To see more about America's values that Wall Street and others can use, and to see why the Occupy and Tea Party movements are calling fir America to live its values, go to www.Purpleamerica.us
Stuart Muszynski, Founder and CEO, Purpleamerica.us Facebook/purpleamericaus twitter#Purpleamerica.us
The values of Wall Street prior to the meltdown were the codification of the values and methods of Enron. Ultimately both were the ethos of the Reaganomic economic and regulatory regime on steroids and PCP...bringing many of the same joys amplified: 1987 stock market crash/Wall Street Melt Down; multri-trillion dollar deficits/ the same + the cost of two wars which had been kept out of the budget but were left for Obama to clean up; Savings and Loans Bailouts/ TARP.
Really, compared to Bush the Younger, Reagan was a pussy.
Maybe the next Republican president will be as inspired by Bush as Bush was by Reagan and won't be content with merely wrecking us economically but will actually destroy us as a nation. In fact, I would put money on it.
You do know that MSNBC hero Paul Krugman was an ENRON advisor don't you.
The government created fiat credit to buy it's own debt to expand own power. In doing so they depressed interest rates and caused a major mal-investment in many assets based on loans, from graduate degrees in nonsense subjects, to second and vacation and larger home, to resorts and hotels, to securities derived from bundled mortgages. Wall Streeters include many people who just follow and react to the price and interest rate signals the government creates and distorts. They aren't the source of the problem, and shallow swimmers like Matt Taibbi can't grasp the fundamentals. Occupistas are being led to ask for more fiat money for more bailouts, perpetuating the system.
Uh-huh. And it didn't have anything to do with the fact that the Wall Street hedge fund managers who bundled the mortgage backed securities and sold them as quality products bet against them to fail. Nor that the ratings agencies who okayed them and the investment houses who sold them would all sell what they knew was absolute crap and praise it to Heaven to eveybody else...if they were paid enough to do it.
Nothing some more deregulation wouldn't fix, right?
Surprise! If you go to CLGDC's client list, you'll find the illustrious Koch Brothers.
You'll also find a list of companies that would be easy enough to boycott...Of course, the companies should be made aware of why they're being boycotted.
Guilt by association.
A monkey wrench can be thrown in more than one direction.
When you mistreat your employees, they leak memos!