[Pen-l] The financiers behind John Podesta and the Center for American Progress

[Charlie <charles1848@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bay Area couple helped grow think tank

By Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune, 11/23/2008

A liberal think tank helping to shape the incoming Obama  
Administration's personnel and policy owes its existence in part to a  
pair of East Bay billionaire banking moguls. Herb and Marion Sandler  
made their fortune by building Oakland-based Golden West Financial 
Corp.  — parent company of World Savings Bank — into one of the 
nation's  largest savings and loans, before selling it to Wachovia Bank 
two years  ago for $24.2 billion.

But of all their investments, helping to launch Center for American  
Progress in 2003 and helping to bankroll it since — in total, an  
estimated $20 million — could prove most far-reaching.

   # CAP president and CEO, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff 
John  Podesta, is now on leave, serving as one of three co-chairs of  
President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

   # CAP former executive vice president of policy Melody Barnes, a  
longtime aide to U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is one of three  
co-chairs of Obama's agency-review team, overseeing the incoming  
administration's department-by-department changes.

   # CAP distinguished senior fellow Tom Daschle, the former Senate  
Majority Leader from South Dakota, has been selected as Obama's  
Secretary of Health and Human Services.

   # CAP senior fellow Laura Tyson — a UC Berkeley professor and 
former  chairwoman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers — is 
on the  Obama transition team's economic advisory board and has been 
mentioned  as a possible appointee.

   # CAP senior fellow P.J. Crowley, a former National Security 
Council  staffer in the Clinton Administration, helped guide Obama's 
team toward  choosing Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as Secretary of 
Homeland Security.

   # CAP trustee Ron Klain will serve as Vice President-elect Joe 
Biden's  chief of staff.

Herb and Marion Sandler, 77 and 78, are among CAP's biggest 
benefactors;  others reportedly include financier George Soros, 
insurance mogul Peter  Lewis and real estate heir/movie mogul Steve Bing.

And CAP is but one of the Sandlers' progressive policy investments;  
they've also given significantly to the American Civil Liberties Union,  
MoveOn.org, America Votes, ACORN, the Rocky Mountain Institute [the  
self-appointed guru of liberal spin, George Lakoff--C.A.], Human Rights  
Watch and many other organizations. They've supported such causes for a  
long time, but stepped up their philanthropy since selling Golden West  
in 2006 and dumping almost $1.3 billion into their San Francisco-based  
Sandler Family Supporting Foundation to dole out to their favorite causes.

But the Sandlers' specific interest in CAP has been clear; Marion  
Sandler remains one of its eight directors.

The Sandlers didn't answer a request for an interview for this article.

They've taken some heat in recent months, accused by some of  
irresponsibly offering the kind of adjustable-rate mortgages that have  
put so many homeowners in danger of foreclosure in the past two years;  
critics accused them of dumping this bad debt on Wachovia, which went  
belly-up and agreed to be sold to Wells Fargo in early October. The  
Sandlers have defended their business practices, contending their loans  
weren't made to borrowers with bad, "subprime" credit records and 
didn't  drag Wachovia down.

Excerpts. Full at  
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_11051487

---

The Center's big backers are from the financial sector and shaky home  
loans in particular. So what false choice did the Center pose about the  
bailout giveaway? This one:
Congress this week must pass by overwhelming margins the financial  
rescue package it negotiated this weekend with the Bush administration.  
Wall Street's disease will become Main Street’s epidemic if nothing is  
done. --September 29, 2008 
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/09/economic_recovery.html

Charles Andrews

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