Haiku Politics

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that big corporations are giving large sums of money to Nancy Pelosi's campaign--as if this is a surprise. Says the Chronicle:

Corporate PACs that gave Pelosi more included those from San Francisco international engineering giant Bechtel. Donations from the company, which is located in Pelosi's district, went from $2,000 in the 2003-04 election cycle to $5,000 this year.

AT&T's donation went from $5,500 to $12,500 and Microsoft's from $6,000 to $10,000.

Employees of the Menlo Park-based venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have given Pelosi $10,500 so far this year, up from $1,000 in 2004.

Brokerage UBS gave $10,000 to Pelosi's committees in 2003-04 and doubled the donation to $20,000 this year.

The brokerage firm's political action committee shows exactly how business can be a bipartisan giver: Of the almost $1.5 million it has contributed thus far during the current election cycle, 48 percent has gone to Democrats and 49 percent to Republicans, data from the Center for Responsive Politics shows.

Thompson, former head of the business council of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has worked for years to dispel the notion that the Democrats are anti-business.

"You can be Democrat and understand business. We're working with them," he said.

And so there you have it from the horse's mouth--an admission that Democrats support corporate interests. Not that this comes as any surprise.

Posted by The Haikuist on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 9:32 AM | Permalink