President Obama’s connection to Jon Corzine was always going to be part of the flurry of stories on the collapse of MF Global, the commodities firm that crumbled under the weight of Corzine’s risky investments and which is under investigation for illegally skimming investors’ money. And that connection is the theme of today’s Reuters story on the matter:
Corzine, who is at the center of a storm over the securities company’s bankruptcy this week, has been a major fundraiser for Obama, having donated the maximum of $5,000 that an individual can give for a presidential campaign, according to campaign finance records.
He also held a lavish $35,800-a-head fundraising dinner for Obama at his home in April and raised or “bundled” donations of at least $500,000 so far for Obama’s 2012 re-election effort….
Corzine has also donated $15,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year and $25,000 to Senate Democrats in 2010, according to regulatory filings.
The Obama administration has said it will give back only the money Corzine directly donated, not that which he “bundled” for Obama (and only if Corzine is charged with a crime). That will probably be enough to satisfy the public on that particular facet of the scandal, but Jim Geraghty points out what giving back that money won’t erase:
I’d like to suggest that in addition to the many photos of the two together, Obama’s own words will come back to haunt him. In July 2009, while trying to help defeat Chris Christie, Obama said this about Corzine:
Like many of us in public life today, Jon is a leader who’s been called to govern in some extraordinary times. He’s been tested by the worst recession in half a century — a recession that was caused by years of recklessness and irresponsibility and a do-nothing attitude. It was caused by the same small thinking that has plagued our politics for decades — the kind of thinking that says we can afford to just tinker around with our problems, we can put off the tough decisions, defer the big challenges. We can just tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
Well that’s not the kind of leader that Jon Corzine is.
That charitable description of Corzine’s public service was never true, but even the appearance of such seems to have been overtaken by events. The reality is, Obama has relied on Corzine as a conduit to Wall Street — a role Corzine has played for the Democratic party for quite some time. And Corzine is a symbol of the excess of the financial sector that Obama rails against, as well as a shining example of how devastating the Democrats’ big government, tax and spend ideology can be when implemented.
Not only was Obama on the verge of hiring Corzine, but he had already hired Lisa Jackson, New Jersey’s former commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, an agency Jackson helped transform into a job-killing, industry-suffocating, unaccountable behemoth. Apparently that was also Obama’s plan for the federal government. That’s what Obama will have a difficult time getting away from—the fact that Corzine’s vision for New Jersey was and remains Obama’s vision for the country.
A story in the WaPo regarding the Obama-Corzine connection stated “MF Global recently made a bond sale with an unusual clause, saying the interest rate on the bonds would rise 1 percent if Corzine ended up being appointed to a post in the Obama administration. There has been speculation that he could be in line for Treasury secretary if the president is reelected.”r nr nForget the appalling prospect of Crash Corzine replace Turbo Tax Geither at Treasury. This seems at the very least unethical and at the most, illegal. If it's not, it should be.