An Inside Story Of Congressional Corruption
-by Marie Newman,
former Congresswoman
Howie and I have commiserated many times about the astonishing leverage and power large corporate PACs (political action committees) and the pro-Israel lobby such as DMFI (Democratic Majority For Israel) and AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee) have in DC and Congress. These groups are wildly outsized compared to all other money sources, to say the least.
I have personal and intimate knowledge of these matters, as a former congresswoman. Along with twelve other members of Congress in the last two election cycles, I was bullied, run over by money and forced out by these groups. To be clear, if I’m being objective, it is quite impressive how low these folks will go and how pervasive their reach is in our politics. The most esteemed political scientists will say winning public perception and elections are all about building coalitions. In the case of corporate PACs, AIPAC and DMFI, PACs, “buying coalitions” has been even more effective at winning elections.
How PACs Buy Coalitions
Typically, corporate healthcare insurance, big pharma, big oil, and big bank PACs will provide a steady stream of regular PAC checks to members of Congress each year. Along with those checks come a set of talking points about the companies’ products or services offering a wonderfully positive spin on services that range from neutral to highly detrimental to Americans. While some of these corporations offer competent and needed goods and services, none of them should be buying and paying off elected officials with PAC donations. In return for these donations, those members of Congress almost universally comply with the provided talking points and vote for bills that favor those companies or oppose those bills that would disadvantage those companies. Worse, if a member decides to work outside of that implicit agreement or go against their corporate PAC and AIPAC benefactors, they will be threatened with a primary. In the case of PACs like AIPAC and DMFI (pro-Israel PACs), members of Congress which receive PAC donations are required to support the Israeli government no matter how many bombs they drop, regardless of the Apartheid state they have created, or the occupation or other anti-peace behavior. Now while I personally want both Palestine and Israel to be free, prosperous and self-determined, the PACs would much rather the Israeli government control all things and not peacefully.
This is how these groups build support, they buy off members of Congress with PAC donations, unlimited SuperPAC money and then once a member is addicted, they feed the member with an ongoing diet of crack hits from lobbyists, executives and friends. Once that base is firm, they build Super PACs during campaign time that have no donation level limits. Now the member is fully controlled forever more.
As a result, these PAC coalitions win elections about ninety-five percent of the time. In my case, the coalition built by AIPAC, DMFI, 314 Science, The New Dems (a corporate driven PAC inside Congress), the crypto gang of PACs formerly affiliated with the notorious Sam Bankman Fried and several other related organizations, spent collectively close to $2 million to take me out. Notably, a similar set of PACs took out Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush and Andy Levin as well as another 8 incumbents in the last two+ years.
In order to maintain compliance, PACS keep supporting corporate Dems’ money addiction for years and years. Currently, 87% of Congress takes corporate PAC money and lobbyist donations. Equally illuminating is 85% of Congress take pro-Israel money (i.e., AIPAC, DMFI). Further, lobbyist spending on members of Congress has skyrocketed to $4.4 billion. Honestly, it is beyond excessive and disgusting.
In return, that super majority of members in Congress is happy to help corporate PACs and AIPAC/DMFI take down any candidates or elected members of Congress who do not take corporate money and believe in critical solutions like Healthcare For All/Medicare For All, Taxing the Rich, fighting against corporate PACs, free college or believe the Palestinians and Israelis should be free, self-determined and at peace.
When They Want You Out, They Will Get You Out
Folks often ask me “why are these corporate Dems so successful in keeping their own elected positions and pushing out non-corporate Dems?”
The answer? Corporate Dems have an obsessive objective: stay in office no matter what, even if they are not in alignment or in service of their constituents. This obsession, of course, translates to taking money from anyone who offers it, regardless how unsavory they may be.
Similarly, when a corporate Dem wants you out, they can gather a natural coalition of highly powerful folks and groups to help, all who have the same interest: Controlling Votes in Congress. AIPAC, DMFI, Corporate PACs, No Labels, The Third Way. All of these groups sincerely believe that public service is about staying elected and not about solving problems.
They all consider candidates who are non-corporate, who believe American’s everyday problems, healthcare, cost of goods, housing and education should be priorities, are equal to folks they cannot control. And let’s face it— if they cannot control you, they want nothing to do with you. Therefore, any candidate or elected official who demonstrates everyday living is their top concern, should not be reelected or elected in the first place.
A classic example: A dear friend called me and started the conversation with “I’m furious” last week. I was curious to be sure as this friend is very measured and asked, “oh boy, what’s up?” She shared the following, “I was just at a small, curated town hall of just 25 people with my Democratic member of Congress. We all shared how frustrated we were and why was he not doing anything? His answer was a long-protracted history of activism with a clear note that this was the responsibility of citizens, not electeds, to object to Trump and his acolytes. The kicker was, he indicated his main responsibility was to get elected again. That was his solution to the problem.” He also went on to say that he takes PAC money and Pro-Israel money so he can get reelected. Not kidding. It happened days ago. It is not about public service and/or helping people for Corporate Dems. It is about money and staying elected.
Dems are at the beckon call of corporate PACs, AIPAC and DMFI at all times.
As a result, most Democrats in Congress say they are the party of working families, but very clearly, they are not. The Democratic Party will not be perceived as the party of working families until they de-corporatize and stop taking corporate and AIPAC money. Period.
Bullying and Money in Politics
The real reason I wrote my recently launched book, A Life Made From Scratch was to help folks understand what really goes on in our electoral politics, particularly in the Democratic party and why candidates without money often lose or are bullied out.
And let’s all be honest— corporate Democrats, corporate PACs and AIPAC and their affiliates are all consummate electoral bullies. They are masters of negativity, false accusations and manipulation. This notion has always intrigued me and kept me on alert. Then, I actually experienced it in 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections.
From my book:
“Gaslighting and manipulation fascinate me. In politics, both are truly exquisite in their subtlety and brutality. While Machiavellian and vile to the victims, they are also omnipresent and remarkably effective in politics. At the heart of it, the ability to keep telling the same lie with conviction is a tried-and-true best practice in politics. When masters craft it, the victim’s own grandmother will believe a ridiculous lie hook, line, and sinker during campaign season.”
Quite interestingly while the Democratic Party is highly effective at this, they are only bested by Trump, Musk and MAGA. At a minimum, I think we can all agree anything those folks are good at it, is not something to be emulated.
Author’s Note: A Special Discount for DownWithTyranny Subscribers— A 25% discount on my new book is available until April 3, 2025 for anyone who reads Howie’s blog; use this link
Last night, we caught most of Frederica Wilson's on-line town hall. FL-24 has a PVI of D +25, and we're "represented" by an 82 y.o. mediocrity who raved about the "leadership" of Jeffries & Schumer and who told everyone that, since Dems are basically powerless now, we need to be lobbying the WH and GOP members. As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.
Hey, it could be worse--my parents live in Jared Moskowitz's CD. Between Wilson, DWS, and Moskowitz, we have a sorry lot of SoFla "Dems." There was a time when we had the likes of Bill Lehman and Claude Pepper in Congress--it seems like a lifetime ago.
Like Ms. Newman, I and my mother…