{"id":6312,"date":"2013-05-28T13:56:24","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T19:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=6312"},"modified":"2013-05-28T13:56:24","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T19:56:24","slug":"of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich-abq-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/election\/of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich-abq-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"&raquo; Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich | ABQ Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/main\/2013\/05\/28\/opinion\/of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich.html\">\u00bb Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich | ABQ Journal<\/a> by Dana Milbank<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>wealth is power in Washington. A multimillionaire president nominated a billionaire who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns, and he sent her to be confirmed by the millionaires\u2019 club that is the United States Senate. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou will certainly have my vote,\u201d Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (average estimated net worth: $103 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics) assured the nominee (net worth $1.85 billion, according to Forbes). <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy hope,\u201d said Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner ($228 million), is \u201cthis committee will recommend you.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill ($22 million) told Pritzker, \u201cI find it very refreshing to find someone who is stepping up like you are in this position.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Another committee member, Sen. Richard Blumenthal ($100 million), didn\u2019t speak at the hearing but issued a statement calling the heiress \u201ca longtime friend with a lifetime of business experience and acumen that will serve her well.\u201d \u2026 <\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t mean the lawmakers were bought. But it does add to the impression that the nominee and her interrogators are all part of the same club of the wealthy and the powerful. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>About half the members of Congress have a net worth of more than $1 million, CRP found \u2013 about 15 times the worth of the typical American household. And it\u2019s a bipartisan club, from Republican committee chairmen Darrell Issa ($480 million) and Michael McCaul ($500 million) to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi ($94 million). The Senate\u2019s wealthiest was John Kerry ($236 million), but he left to join an even more exclusive club. <\/p>\n<p>How exclusive? Well, it\u2019s about to land a billionaire. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/main\/2013\/05\/28\/opinion\/of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich.html\">\u00bb Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich | ABQ Journal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00bb Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich | ABQ Journal by Dana Milbank wealth is power in Washington. A multimillionaire president nominated a billionaire who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns, and he sent her to be confirmed by the millionaires\u2019 club that is the United States Senate. \u201cYou &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/election\/of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich-abq-journal\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&raquo; Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich | ABQ Journal<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}