As far as I’m concerned, I can die now and go to blogger heaven, satisfied that my sense of political irony can’t be bested by any future headline that would compete with today’s news that global gambling tycoon, Sheldon Adelson is funding a $5-million TV ad campaign on behalf of Newt Gingrich that will target Mitt Romney as a “predatory capitalist.” If you were Andy Borowitz, Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart, what better comedy could you expect? You might as well hang up the cleats and retire. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Adelson, a truly predator capitalist who not only sues the pants off his own contractors, but lifts the life savings of his own gambling clients has the unmitigated gall to call Romney a vulture capitalist. Adelson’s livelihood is truly ghoulish as it preys on the weakness of human beings who can’t help themselves. It leaves many of them bankrupt. Listen to this and think of echoes of Adelson’s own depraved indifference to the fortunes of HIS victims:
The movie [attacking Romney], financed by a Republican operative who wants to stop the party from nominating Mr. Romney, includes emotional interviews with people who lost jobs at companies that Bain bought and later sold.
“We had to load up the U-Haul because we done lost our home,” one woman says.
In turn, Adelson uses this funding to support the destructive policies of his current political soul mate, Bibi Netanyahu. In addition, he funds Birthright’s dubious program strengthening Zionist identity among American Jews and the tabloid, Yisrael HaYom, without which even Netanyahu concedes the right could never have come to power and dominated Israeli political life as long as it has.
Sheldon Adelson is one of the single most destructive factors among Diaspora Jews supporting Israel. Yet he’s going to tell the people of South Carolina that Mitt Romney is a bad man. Don’t make me laugh.
Don’t get me wrong. Mitt Romney is an unMITTigated disaster in his own right. But he’s less of a hypocrite than Newt and his pallie, Shel.
This $5-million expenditure seems to be a down-payment on the $20-million that the media reported Adelson was prepared to spend on behalf of Gingrich in the primaries alone. If Gingrich’s campaign continues long enough Adelson will have an opportunity to spend the entire sum. By the way, when the $20-million figure was first floated Adelson’s operative denied there was any truth to it. Now we see that it was Adelson himself who was truth-challenged. The NY Times article also notes Adelson was one of the chief backers of Gingrich’s post-Congress career donating $7 million to his group, American Solutions. Adelson also donated $30 million to another far-right Republican effort in the 2008 campaign, Freedom Watch.
I haven’t seen any photos of Adelson and Gingrich together. If anyone has, please get in touch.
Here is a link to a photo of Adelson and Romney together:
http://www.ajwnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Romney,-Semler-&-Adelson-20.gif
Could someone plse answer why the USA would have to have the dumbest electorate in any democracy?
As far as I can see, it would be better if Adelson multiplied his investments to support Gingrich by an order of ten or so.
It won’t help Gingrich anyway; he will probably come third or fourth in NH and SC, and after that he is essentially done. On the other hand, every buck he gives to Gingrich’s crusade against the windmills will be saved from the Bibi-crowd in Israel, which is positive.
The November elections are going to be between Obama and Romney; there’s not much to be done about it.
Adelson is worth billions. So he has plenty to spare for both Bibi & Newt, alas.
Birthright Israel is a beautiful program. Mr. Adelson is a Mensch and has done more for Jewish and American causes than you will ever hope to accomplish.