Thread: Petraeus as Professor: How Elite Paybacks Are Made

Petraeus as Professor: How Elite Paybacks Are Made

Posted 10 hours ago by Mark Horne

Oops! David Petraeus was going to get paid $200 thousand a year as a very part-time “visiting professor” at City University of New York. That would be for exactly two lectures a year. He would be happily raking in the money right now except Gawker spoiled his fun by breaking the news.
But now it is all fixed.
“After several weeks of public criticism, CUNY announced the pay cut today. ‘The general never was taking on this teaching assignment for the money,’ says Petraeus' lawyer, per the Times. ‘Once controversy arose about the amount he was being paid, he decided it was much more important to keep the focus on the students, on the school and on the teaching, and not have it be about the money.’ The dean of CUNY's honors college, nevertheless, stands by the price tag. ‘We felt that we had the opportunity to bring somebody of extreme stature to be with our students and that whether the salary was $200,000 or $150,000 he was absolutely worth it,’ she says.”
What nonsense. The Gawker provides documentation that shows it was all about the money. What seems to have really gone wrong for CUNY is that it expected there to be a “private donor” who would pay for Petraeus’ six-hour work year. If Petraeus’ pay came from the general fund, that would raise many issues considering that CUNY is not a private institution.
What would it mean if CUNY had found a donor to cover this salary? It would have been a kickback from someone that owed Petraeus a favor or who hoped to gain a favor from him. It seems that Petraeus’ record has left him without a long line of buyers wishing to repay or purchase his services.
Consider how it worked for Timothy Geithner, who recently made a cool $400k for three speeches with more to come. The AmericaBlog got it right: “Geithner is the model for legal bribery in DC.” The institutions who paid for his incredibly expensive speaking services were some of the Wall Street creatures that he protected as Secretary of the Treasury.
Or consider Bill Clinton:
“On December 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a bill called the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. This law ensured that derivatives could not be regulated, setting the stage for the financial crisis. Just two months later, on February 5, 2001, Clinton received $125,000 from Morgan Stanley, in the form of a payment for a speech Clinton gave for the company in New York City. A few weeks later, Credit Suisse also hired Clinton for a speech, at a $125,000 speaking fee, also in New York. It turns out, Bill Clinton could make a lot of money, for not very much work. Today, Clinton is worth something on the order of $80 million (probably much more, but we don’t really know), and these speeches have become a lucrative and consistent revenue stream for his family.”
This is what Petraeus was attempting to tap into. Whether or not he succeeded is not the point. The point is that these incredible remuneration schemes are how elites pay each other off.
Just wait until Obama leaves office and watch his payday unfold.



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Be tray us gets his due!!!

Obama hands out plum ambassador posts to big campaign donors

By Julian Pecquet - 07/16/13 05:00 AM ET


President Obama has rewarded at least 19 campaign contributors and political allies with ambassadorships this year, according to an analysis by The Hill.
Nominations to plum postings have gone to no fewer than eight bundlers, six of whom raised more than $1 million for the president’s reelection campaign. The president has also given prized ambassadorships to key fundraising staffers, including the head of his 2012 finance operation.
Presidents of both parties have long rewarded donors with diplomatic prestige, but Obama appears to be outdoing his immediate predecessors.

As of June 28, 32.2 percent of Obama’s ambassadorial appointments had gone to political appointees, according to the American Foreign Service Association, versus 30.02 percent under George W. Bush, 27.82 percent under Bill Clinton and 31.30 percent under George H.W. Bush.Internal financial documents obtained by The New York Times suggest the price per post is also at an all-time high, although apples-to-apples comparisons aren’t possible because precise figures aren’t available for previous administrations.
The amounts raised by the eight bundlers in 2011-2012 ranged from $2.36 million by Women for Obama Finance Chairwoman Denise Bauer to $477,000 from Los Angeles entertainment attorney and Michelle Obama Princeton classmate Crystal Nix Hines. The two women have been named to serve as ambassadors to Belgium and UNESCO, respectively, while other bundlers have been tapped for service in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Singapore and Austria.
Another bundler, Democratic National Committee National Finance Chairwoman Jane Stetson, is rumored to be in line for the top diplomatic post in Paris, perhaps the most prestigious ambassadorial position of them all. Stetson raised $2.43 million for Obama.
The Paris and London postings were also coveted by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, Obama’s fourth biggest bundler, who raised $2.68 million, but she’s expected to have to settle for something else.
Retired JPMorgan Vice President Azita Raji, Obama’s second biggest bundler, at $3.15 million, is a top choice for ambassador to Switzerland.
And Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy and a lifelong Democratic activist, is the heavy favorite for ambassador to Japan.
“I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to serve the American people in these important roles,” Obama said when he named Matthew Barzun, the national finance chairman of Obama for America and a bundler who raised $2.31 million, to be ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Obama’s use of ambassadorships as rewards to bundlers has drawn cries of protest from career diplomats.
“Now is the time to end the spoils system and the de facto ‘three-year rental’ of ambassadorships,” the American Foreign Service Association said in a statement after Obama’s election. “The United States is alone in this practice; no other major democracy routinely appoints non-diplomats to serve as envoys to other countries.”
Retired U.S. diplomat Thomas Pickering told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper that the practice amounted to selling public office to the highest bidder after a spate of donor appointments last week.
“All these people want to go to places where the lifestyle issues [are pleasant],” Pickering said. “It has the effect of diminishing perhaps the sense that the US is treating these countries with the respect they deserve.”
But not everyone is critical of the practice.
P.J. Crowley, who served as a State Department spokesman under Obama and at the National Security Council under Clinton, says top fundraisers are highly successful people who often make fine diplomats — especially in developed economies like Europe and Japan. He said most of Obama’s political nominees had been “very, very successful,” highlighting the case of Obama bundler Donald Gips, who won the State Department’s Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service one year after becoming ambassador to South Africa.
“A major aspect of their job is creating economic opportunities for the U.S.,” said Crowley, now with The George Washington University. “These are eminently successful people and they know how to operate.”
Bundlers aren’t the only ones being rewarded for their fundraising prowess.
Rufus Gifford raised more than $700 million as Obama’s campaign finance chairman and has been tapped to be ambassador to Denmark. John Phillips, the chairman of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president’s reelection and hopes the Senate will approve his posting to Italy.
Other appointees are close political allies of Obama’s. These include Samantha Power, his choice for ambassador to the United Nations; DNC Executive Director and Obama’s 2008 campaign political director Patrick Gaspard, tapped to go to South Africa; White House Deputy Chief of Staff Mark Childress, the nominee for Tanzania; and former Office of Personnel Management head John Berry, the president’s choice for ambassador to Australia.
The five other second-term nominees who aren’t considered career diplomats are former California Supreme Court Judge Carlos Moreno (Belize); former Catholic Relief Services head Kenneth Hackett (Holy See); former Center for American Progress Director Reuben Brigety (African Union); Native American “super lawyer” Keith Harper (U.N. Human Rights Council); and former Deputy National Security Adviser Douglas Lute (NATO).
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