Mitt Romney's off-shore accounts are the beginning of the next pending scandal: His fundraisers in London, strictly prohibited by the Supreme Court in January.
Can you imagine what Fox News would have done to Barack Obama for hosting an overseas fundraiser for his campaign? Donald Trump would have the Birthers foaming at the mouth.
My op-ed yesterday at t2P connects the dots between Mitt Romney's international accounts and these international events to raise money for his bid for the Presidency of the United States of America.
John McCain had an expatriate fundraiser in London in 2008, but that was under pre-Citizens United rules.
These new Romney fundraisers, a pair of $75,000 a couple dinners/$2500 cocktail parties, have been reported by the Guardian and other news outlets to be drawing in all kinds of interesting people, including representatives of China's HSBC bank, Goldman Sachs foreign office, and Bain's international operators, to name a few.
Romney has resorted to Koch-like tactics, swearing the 47 hosts of the event to complete secrecy as to whom will attend.
The invites say that you need to show a U.S. passport to donate, but what large company doesn't have an American straw man to make the donation for them?
The people who will be attending don't really have to coordinate up to the names giving, now do they, especially when the event is in LONDON.
Who is going to cross-check the givers and the guest list? Even if that was a requirement, who is going to enforce this in a foreign country? The Federal Election Commission doesn't keep offices at embassies.
The London fundraisers are an end-run around the Supreme Court's prohibition against giving by foreign donors that was spelled out in Bluman, et al., v. Federal Election Commission in January.
They are also more about message than money. Why have these dinners in London when it is far easier for off-shores to funnel money through American companies giving to Super PACs under Citizens United?
Romney is making a statement with his dinners. a formal nod to his large network of off-shore friends that he will have their back.
The Kochs and Foster Friess and the rest of the Dead Billionaires Club who bitterly opposed him are, at least for now, on his side. He already had the backing of Wall Street and the Neo Cons. He wants to rub elbows and start making deals that will roll out should he spend the next four years as President.
He can't do that? Technically. As we've seen from his off-shore investing, and his time running the Olympics, he has legions of proxies to do his bidding for him on the money side while he is busy stroking his public ego.
The London dinners are Koch-brothers-secretive. No official guest list. 47 hosts are known, but they're sworn to secrecy as to who is attending.
For a candidate already struggling with transparency, and simple honesty, this is would be a big deal if the mainstream media would deal with it.
Thus far, only a handful of papers have even reported on it, and none have connected the "whys" together.
It would be unusual for Mitt Romney to change his spots. He has been an Internationalist most of his working career. He owes his allegiance to his own bottom line first, and those with whom he has made his millions off-shoring and dismantling companies.
What could he do?
Deals with countries whose policy his national policy would effect. Deals with unfriendly countries. A man in Mitt Romney's position could decry blood diamonds at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and invest in the slave trade that brings them by way of holding companies lining his blind trust's pockets.
Imagine every government function short of Homeland Security being off-shored to cheaper service centers abroad. Sound preposterous? You should have spent the afternoon in my local tax collector's office that is doubling these days as the State DMV. Republicans talk about streamlining government, but they love bureaucracy when it suits them.
Look at all of the bureaucracy and profit for large testing companies that No Child Left Behind created. If someone can make a buck off of the taxpayer, Republicans are all for it, as long as it is their friends' palms being greased.
It would be naive to think that Mitt Romney isn't going to take care of his friends with deals in India, Asia, and behemoth China.
The media needs to start asking better questions about these London events: Who is coming? What's in it for them?
You think that the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is going to cough up at least $75K for a bad chicken dinner with a two-faced Michigan Mormon?
More of my thinking on this is at the blog, if you have an interest.