Last week, the Obama campaign reported that it had a $52 million haul in the month of June. In releasing this information, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in an e-mail to supporters that:

“You continue to prove what ordinary Americans committed to change can accomplish, despite the Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs funding so much of our opponents’ campaign.”

Two articles in the US media point to what I have long been saying about Obama’s duplicitous statements on where his money is coming from and it is not from “ordinary Americans”. It is from corporate interests and Washington lobbyists and yes PAC money. The only difference is that backhanded manner in which Obama collects his millions.

The first article is from the Los Angeles Times in article by Dan Morain entitled Donations to Obama campaign include some biggies:

Even as he touts his base of small donors, Barack Obama is relying heavily on well-heeled contributors who have given $28,500 or more each to Democratic Party committees that will campaign on his behalf.

Obama aides emphasized that the average donation to his campaign in June — during which he brought in $52 million — was $68. Over the course of his campaign, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee has raised $340 million. By law, an individual can give no more than $2,300 to a candidate for the primary and $2,300 for the general election.

Obama has established joint fundraising agreements with the Democratic National Committee and two other party committees. Those entities can raise larger sums and spend unlimited amounts on behalf of individual candidates.

Of the $20.3 million Obama’s joint fundraising committees amassed in June, 86%, or $17.6 million, came in chunks of $5,000 or more; 64% came in increments of $28,500 or more, campaign finance reports filed over the weekend show.

Frank Clark, head of Commonwealth Edison, which supplies electricity to Chicago, gave $2,300 to Obama early in the campaign and $28,500 last month to the Democratic White House Victory Fund.

John Rogers, founder of the Chicago investment house Ariel Capital, also gave the maximum to Obama’s presidential account, and $13,000 to Democratic White House Victory.

According to the campaign, Clark and Rogers are among Obama’s largest fundraisers, each having raised more than $200,000 from friends and associates.

Employees at Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, have given more than $180,000.

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt noted that the campaign, unlike the Democratic Party and the fundraising committees, has tapped small donors, raising the bulk of its money in increments of less than $90.

Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute, said that although Obama had raised an unprecedented $165 million from those who donated in increments of less than $200, “he cannot raise $150 million or whatever his budget says he needs without going to large contributors.”

The presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, also has joint fundraising committees and will probably rely heavily on them in the fall.

Such committees appeal to candidates and donors because contributors can write a single check and have it split among the candidate, the party and related committees.

A review of the campaign finance reports filed over the weekend with the Federal Election Commission showed that attorneys accounted for at least $2.4 million of the $20.3 million the three Obama joint committees raised.

People who listed their occupations as investors or said they worked for investment houses contributed at least an additional $2.85 million. Individuals who said they were chief executive officers, company presidents or board chairmen chipped in $1.8 million. The entertainment industry accounted for $1.5 million.

McDonald’s President Donald Thompson and Pepsi Chairman Robert Pohlad each gave $28,500. The Pohlad family, including Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, gave a combined $170,000 to Democratic committees.

Entertainers who donated $28,500 to the committees include producers Frederick W. Field and Steven Bochco and his wife, Dayna, and actors Samuel L. Jackson and Edward Norton.

NBA star LeBron James donated $20,000.

In several instances, couples doubled their donations. Professional poker player Phil Ivey and his wife, Luciaetta, for example, each gave $33,100 to the Obama Victory Committee. New York writer and entrepreneur Steven Brill and his wife, attorney Cynthia Brill, donated $61,600 last month, with $4,600 going to Obama’s presidential campaign and the rest going to one of the party’s joint fundraising committees.

The Exelon donations are particulary interesting. Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaigns for the United States Senate and another $180,000 for President. That’s $400,000 from the upper echelons of the nation’s largest nuclear power firm. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.

Another Obama donor, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon, is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry’s lobbying group, based in Washington. Exelon’s support for Mr. Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate. In addition, Mr. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon. A spokeswoman for Exelon said Mr. Axelrod’s company had helped an Exelon subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, with communications strategy periodically since 2002.

You got to love this one degree of separation because in 2005 during Obama’s first year in the Senate, Exelon Corporation failed to disclose some radioactive leaks from a nuclear power plant sixty miles south of Chicago. Naturally when the leaks came to light, residents were less than thrilled. Obama railed against the firm publicly but then proceed to help out the company in the subterfuge that is the United States.

First, Obama worked to pass a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was “the only nuclear legislation that I’ve passed.” The only thing it passed was its committee; the bill died on the Senate floor.

In March 2006, Senator Obama introduced a bill known as the Nuclear Release Notice Act of 2006. The bill S109-2348 stated flatly that nuclear plants “shall immediately” notify federal, state and local officials of any accidental release of radioactive material that exceeded “allowable limits for normal operation.” Like all of Obama’s legislation, the bill never became law. This was largely due to the fact that Exelon objected to the provisions of bill and complained to Senator Obama’s office. Facing pushback from his major donor, Obama then worked with Senator James Inofe of Oklahoma to insert provisions into another bill that gave the Nuclear Energy Institute whose chair is also the CEO of Exelon to assist the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in writing the technical standards of what constitute “allowable limts for normal operation.” The language of the bill was also changed. In place of Obama’s original straightforward reporting requirements was new language giving the nuclear commission two years to come up with its own regulations. The bill said that the commission “shall consider” — not require — immediate public notification, and also take into account the findings of a task force it set up to study the tritium leaks.

Oh the things that money can buy. In this case, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon and chair of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry association that was now assisting US Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the technical standards of what constitutes a leak, bought in effect the words “shall consider.” Of course, John W. Rowe is just an “ordinary American” as Obama campaign manager David Plouffe suggests. John W. Rowe is just an “ordinary American” who according to Forbes’ 2005 list of Executive Pay was paid $11.5 mil in total compensation. But don’t fret, this “ordinary American” is on up and up. According to Reuters, John W. Rowe earned $19,491,556 in total compensation in 2007.

The second article is from US News & World Report in article written by Bonnie Erbe entitled Barack Obama’s Fundraising Hypocrisy—a Lobbyist by Any Other Name…:

The latest campaign finance figures show Sen. Barack Obama’s pledge not to take money from lobbyists is a distinction without a difference.

He clobbered Sen. John McCain in fundraising last month, netting more than twice the amount of money raised by his rival. From Bloomberg:

Obama took in $51.9 million in June, including $1.4 million from a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, while McCain reported raising $21.5 million, including $5.1 million from his fundraising effort with the Republican National Committee.

But consider whence much of Obama’s money comes. While donations to his campaign are not accepted from lobbyists per se, they are proffered by corporate executives. These same executives face a mountain of federal issues on which they will most surely need Obama’s help, should he win the White House in November. So what’s the difference?

To wit. Bloomberg reported that donors to Obama’s joint fundraising committee included Jay Grinney, president and chief executive officer of Birmingham, Ala.-based HealthSouth Corp., who gave $10,000, and Donald Thompson, U.S. chief of Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s Corp., who gave $28,500, the maximum.

As I’ve noted before, Sen. Obama’s fourth-largest corporate donor is Exelon, the nation’s largest provider of nuclear power.

Did he take donations straight from the pockets of the company’s lobbyists? No. But did he accept largesse in the amount of more than a quarter million dollars from Exelon’s CEO and top executives? Yes. In the process, he watered down to oblivion an antinuclear amendment he had sponsored, originally to force nuclear power producers to report even the most negligible of radioactive leaks. He then went on to tell mesmerized campaign audiences he had “passed” his antinuclear bill, which never passed the U.S. Senate.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign disinvited Democratic war hero and former Sen. Max Cleland to appear at an Obama event in Atlanta earlier this month. Why? Sen. Cleland is a registered lobbyist.

John McCain openly accepts lobbyists’ donations. And some voters find that as much of a conflict (because Senator McCain has his name attached to the most important campaign finance reform bill of the last two decades.) The difference between McCain and Obama on this issue is McCain has never pledged not to take lobbyists’ donations. He has only pledged to fight to make the process as transparent as possible.

It is, of course, reassuring to see these articles in the media. However is anybody reading them?

From my blog, By The Fault.

Senator Obama, on his Rockapalooza tour of the Middle East and Europe, is now taking time out from photo ops and playing hoops (you know, while Afghani women were being executed) in order to issue a ‘fatwa’ of his own: He is forbidding the press corps to wear green.

From Politico:

Mohamad Bazzi, a professor of journalism at New York University and former Middle East bureau chief for Newsday, called the instruction “very strange.”

“I guess green is the ‘Hamas color’ — but it’s also the color of Islam!” Bazzi said in an email from Beirut. “That’s one way for the Obama campaign to alienate 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide.”

Why stop now, Senator. You’ve already alienated ‘bitter’ voters, Asian voters, Italian voters, rural voters, women voters, gay voters, FL, MI, WV, KY, OH, to name a few… but wait, there’s more!

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said:

“I’ve never heard of that before,” he said, adding that nobody had ever suggested avoiding the color on his satellite television show, which airs weekly in the Arab world. “This is an overreach on somebody’s part,” he said. “It’s not going to insult anybody, nor is it going to offend them if somebody does wear green.”

“Our folks in Jerusalem and the USA have no idea what this is about,” said an official of one major American Jewish organization. “We have not ever suggested that people not wear the color green.

Is Obama afraid of being associated with being a Muslim? Why? He’s a Christian, no? Why the abundance of caution? Doesn’t he realize this could be construed as him protesting too much – again?

Just as he did with his faux “outrage” at the New Yorker cartoon of he and Michelle…

I mean, if there’s really no smoke, why make a fire? But this is not the only fire…

We recently had the Obama campaign ‘uninviting’ Senator Max Cleland from a campaign event. You remember Max – the man who lost three limbs in the Vietnam war and fights to help other veterans’ recovery; one of the icons of the Democratic Party. Well, the Obama campaign says he’s technically a “lobbyist” and they wouldn’t want to open themselves up to criticism. Uh-huh.

OK, now that he’s offended all veterans. What else do we have…

Throwing Jesse Jackson under the bus. Why worry? I mean, Jesse Jackson hasn’t earned his stripes in the civil rights movement or anything, has he?

Throwing – actually, hurling General Wesley Clark under the bus. By the way, at the Netroots Convention this weekend, I think the General got a little of his own back – but I’m not sure the crowd got the reference. In thanking the Netroots Nation for sticking up for him after being skewered for his comments about John McCain, Clark said:

I was at a Washington dinner with James Carville, … I said, “James, …how are we going to convince the American people that just because we’re in a time of war that they don’t have to vote Republican? How are we going to get them to understand that Democrats have a pretty good national security record?”

[Carville] said, “You’ll never get the American people to believe that Democrats will defend them until Democrats stand up and defend each other.”

The Netroots crowd cheered, not realizing General Clark was probably criticizing Obama for not defending him.

Obama also threw Hillary Clinton’s 18 million supporters under the bus and then told us to “get over it,” with his inimitable groupie, Nancy Pelosi echoing his every turn of phrase. You remember Nancy – the House Speaker with the 14% approval rating – once again unable to keep her foot out of her mouth insulting Hillary’s voters re the possibility of her being selected for the VP slot…tossing out Gov. Kathy Sebelius’ name in the same breath – cause you know, all us gals are interchangeable.

Then there’s his audacity at wanting to campaign in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. No offense there.

I now understand Senator Obama thinks our military isn’t enough and wants to employ a civilian national security force? Can you say Blackwater? Does this scare anyone else?

And now he may be offending all Muslims, too?

This is odd considering none other than Senator John Kerry said that Senator Obama is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between us and the Muslim community. Not so much now, huh, John?

By the way, Senator Kerry, how did it feel to see your friend Max Cleland kicked to the curb by your favorite wunderkind, Obama? Are you going to make a public statement about that one and speak out for your dear old friend, Max? Or is your new friend, Barack, more important?

And then there is the good relationship Obama’s says he’s going to build up with Europe over the next eight to ten years. Ten years? Did the length of the presidential term just increase while I was out for dinner or something? How about eight years? Never mind, eight, ya gotta make it to the first four, Barack…or is that just a technicality?

Right now, considering how damaged the Republican brand is, with Obama’s enormous financial and press advantage, how is it that he’s in a dead heat with Senator McCain? I mean, he should be 20 points ahead, shouldn’t he?

Hank Sheinkopf, a respected political consultant, was interviewed on Lou Dobbs radio show last week, and said Obama ‘just needs to keep his head down and his mouth shut till the Conventioin and then he’ll get a bump.’ Wow. I thought we wanted to hear Senator Obama speak. I thought his strength was his communication skills. Maybe the first term is not such a sure thing after all.

Perhaps that is why Obama is terrified to face John McCain at a town hall meeting.

Hell, he won’t even meet with his own press corps. You know, the ones who aren’t allowed to wear green.

From Andrea Mitchell on Hardball, July 21st:

Let me just say something about the message management. He didn’t have reporters with him, he didn’t have a press pool, he didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground in either Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in. You’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questions by the military, and what some would call fake interviews, because they’re not interviews from a journalist. So, there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be. But we’ve not seen a presidential candidate do this, in my recollection, ever before.

Don’t complain Andrea – you vomited all over Hillary at every turn so you could help this guy get the nomination. Happy now?

Maybe if the press corps asks Senator Obama what his favorite color is and wears that, they’ll actually be granted a real press conference and get to ask, you know, like eight questions or something?

And now the ultimate insult. Senator Obama has put his logo on a plane that is flying overseas instead of the American flag. We have troops risking their lives every day. He is there representating our country and by America’s leave, with America’s protection. We fly our colors.

Does he think he is bigger than the United States of America?

I find this man and his campaign so deeply offensive, words fail at his latest act of hubris and disrespect. So I will simply end here.

Max Cleland–a beloved Democrat who lost three limbs in a hand grenade accident while engaged in combat operations in Viet Nam–is a guy you would definitely want to have at your party, especially if you want to be President of the United States. Aside from being a decorated war hero, Cleland was the administrator of the Veterans Administration under Jimmy Carter, a United States Senator, and remains a vocal critic of the Bush Administration.

So, it was a no-brainer for the Obama campaign to invite Cleland to appear at a fundraising event in Atlanta earlier this month. But at the last minute, Cleland’s invitation was yanked from right under his wheelchair.

Why? Well, it turns out that Max Cleland is a registered lobbyist. No, he has never lobbied in Washington. No, he does not represent a huge, greedy corporation. Cleland is a senior policy advisor for Tissue Regeneration Technologies (TRT), a health care company that, according to its motto, believes in “doing well by doing good.” And from all indications the company appears to living up to it. TRT is sponsoring clinical trials as part of the Combat Wound Initiative at Walter Reed Army Medical center, testing the effectiveness of noninvasive technology on soft tissue and bone injuries sustained by American soldiers from blasts, penetrating fragments, and burns from IED’s. Cleland stated, “We [TRT] will be working diligently on behalf of our men and women in uniform to advance this innovative technology into the military arena. I believe it will greatly benefit our soldiers and veterans. Our soldiers deserve the best, and I am very proud to be part of this truly worthy endeavor.”

Well, you don’t want that kind of person at your party.

But let’s look at the larger question, and things quickly turn from a stupid PR decision to downright scary possibilities!

Obama says he will not have anything to do with lobbyists. But does anyone with more than a handful of frontal cortex cells believe that dumping lobbyists will bring an end to influence peddling in Washington? Never mind that “Mr. Hope and Change” enlisted James A. Johnson, a former lobbyist now drawing scrutiny for his ties to subprime-mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corporation, as a member of his Vice Presidential vetting team. Obama has taken in huge sums of money from corporations and big business and, if you can believe Robert Novak, Obama has been holding closed meetings with undisclosed industry CEOs.

Wouldn’t it be better to shine a bright light on influence peddlers by keeping them registered so we know exactly who they are and who they work for?

Read more about Max Cleland’s “disinvitaion” at Politico.com.