Sacramento to Cheney: You Suck, Dick (and Doolittle, too)!

(May 22, 2006 – Sacramento, CA) Several hundred Sacramento progressives led by the California Nurses Association (CNA) did not welcome Dick Cheney during his visit to the Sacramento today.

The CNA-organized protest was held at the Sacramento Hyatt Hotel across from the State Capitol. (Gov. Schwarzenegger, who lives at the hotel, quietly left town the night before.)

Cheney dropped by Sacramento to raise money for Congressman John Doolittle. Cheney’s fundraising help is particularly gratifying to Doolittle since Doolittle and his wife have a special arrangement, of dubious legality, in which they get to personally pocket 15% of the campaign contributions to his reelection campaign and leadership committee. So far this political cycle the Doolittles have collected at least $82,000 from this profitable arrangement as their personal cut, while some the most lucrative months of the fundraising cycle are still to come.

Doolittle also has the distinction of being the only member of Congress embroiled in both the Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham corruption scandals. With Abramoff in jail, Corrupter-in-Chief Cheney is now lending a hand to Doolittle, and helping his corporate friends buy a little more influence.

All of this is a prime example of why the California Nurses Association is promoting its upcoming Clean Money Elections initiative. Clean Money Elections, also known as public financing of campaigns, allow candidates to run for office without taking huge donations from lobbyists and corporations and without owing them favors.

If the Democrats win back Congress and regain the power to investigate these charter members of the Republican Culture of Corruption, many of them will go to prison. From Cheney's secret energy policy meetings at the beginning of Bush Administration, to the fixing of intelligence around policy, to the no bid contracts in Iraq, and the illegal spying on Americans, the investigators will be busy.