A Dollar Donated to Hillary Clinton is a Dollar not Spent Against Republicans

This is a rant against a fellow Democrat. If you can't stomach it please don't read any further.

There is an old  joke about a guy  running down the street with his clothes on fire. Another  man comes up to him with a cigarette  and asks

Hey, Buddy. Can I have a light?

That is Sen. Clinton for you.

Gas is $4.50. Banks are failing. People are struggling.  We are in a tough race against John McCain for President. It is not an exaggeration to say that the fate of the world hangs in the balance. At the very least the fate of thousands of our soldiers and many more Iraqis.

McCain is exploiting loopholes in the law ( which he wrote) toget supporters to pay as much as $100K per person. The RNC has a 2 to 1 advantage in fundraising over  the DNC.  In the midst of all this, what does Hillary Clinton want us to do?

Pay off her campaign debt!. Talk about selfish. Ran a spendthrift campaign, always spending more than she raised. Is worth at least $100M. And she wants the small contributors to Obama's campaign to pay her bills.

Raising $20M  to pay Clinton's  bills is not our priority.

Pay your own bills!

Clinton wants to cut into Obama's donor base of small donors, as the fat cats who funded her campaign have maxed out. Fine. If Obama had raised, say,  $100M in June, letting her have a few dollars would be OK. Or if McCain were not raising obscene sums from fat cat Republicans.

Every dollar that goes to Clinton is a dollar not  spent against Republicans. If you are maxed out to Obama, and most of his donors are not, then contribute to the DNC. Or to Congressional and local Democratic races. sen. Clinton is rich enough to pay her own bills. The waitress in Scranton does not need to skimp on groceries so that Sen. Clinton can pay her political consultants.

A professional class of political operatives have come up in the Democratic Party. They have a sense of entitlement. That they deserve to be paid even if their candidate loses. Even if the GE is not over yet. There is something to be said for a return to the grass roots. The only role of the grassroots should not be to feed those further up the political hierarchy. Too many politicians and their operatives are becoming parasites on the public they claim to serve.

Sen. Clinton has more than $20M in her campaign treasury that she cannot spend because she raised it for the GE. She wants to convert that to a war chest for her Senate campaign. The purpose is to scare away anyone who might consider running against her in a Primary. At the same time  she wants Obama to help her raise her new money from his base. Obama is a busy man.  Paying off Clinton's debt is a low priority for him. No wonder he forgot to mention it at a fundraiser and had to come back for it.

From time to time, a Clinton supporter will give an interview saying Obama needs to woo them. Most recently Congresswoman Wassermann-Shultz.  This is the same person who would not campaign for her Democratic colleagues in Florida, because she doesn't want to upset her Republican friends. Here is another gem:

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a top Clinton fund-raiser, telecommunications entrepreneur and member of the Democratic national convention’s platform committee, said she had questions about Mr. Obama’s trustworthiness. If he does not answer them, Ms. de Rothschild said she would at least consider voting for Mr. McCain or even working for him.

This is the same Baroness Rotchschild  who called Obama an elitist! Yes, a Rothschild, heir to one of the great banking fortunes of the world, calls the man who grew up on food stamps an elitist. She went on Fox News to complain about bloggers ridiculing her, but I am not giving that link.

Although Sen. Clinton has given vocal support to Obama, she has not done enough to rein in people like this.
Right after the primary, it looked as though there were large numbers of Clinton supporters who would defect and go to McCain. But that has not happened. There is no need to walk as if we are on egg-shellls. We need to focus our energies on beating McCain. Sen. Clinton can be a help, by not demanding that she be paid off until the GE is over.

UPDATE: An important point I should have mentioned, one that many Clinton supporters are confused about. It is not true that Clinton cannot raise for her debt after the convention in August. It is not true that she needs to keep her campaign alive to raise money either.

The McCain-Feingold law requires that if she wants to pay herself back for the loans she gave to the campaign, she needs to do it before the convention. But to pay off her other creditors, she can raise money any time: no deadline. Also, she can pay off her bills using her own money, the same as anybody. Most politicians are not wealthy enough to pay for their own campaigns. That is why they quit when the campaign goes seriously into debt. Clinton kept going because she was wealthy enough to pay for it. And now wants Obama supporters to pay her bills. And she is having a very hard time of it: so far has raised only $100K. And it is likely to remain tough for her.

McCain-Feingold Law

The 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, however, pushes her the other way — setting no deadline for paying creditors but giving her only until the August convention to repay herself. After that, all but $250,000 of her $11.4 million in loans would automatically be converted into unrecoverable campaign contributions. The Millionaires Amendment in McCain-Feingold sets that deadline to prevent self-financing candidates from collecting and pocketing contributions years after their campaigns have folded.

UPDATE 2: I hear the argument that we should pay off Sen. Clinton's bills because she is a "Great American". I know many Americans-may be not as Great as Sen. Clinton-  who are far more worthy of our hard earned dollars: how about any of the families of Iraq veterans who were killed in the war? Why is a hundred-millionaire, with wealthy friends like Baroness Rothschild, more worthy of our support? In my book, a great American is someone who pays her own bills. If you have the money.

The poll speaks for itself.