Obama’s Washington: The O-List
It’s been estimated that, if Obama wanted to back a statewide candidate, he could raise $3 million with a single e-mail. That’s against anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million from MoveOn.org, the reigning online champion, according to the blogger Matt Stoller.
Already, it’s hard to find a newly elected Democrat in Washington who doesn’t partly owe his seat to Obama’s money and machine. Even Democrats from conservative Southern districts–a perennial nuisance to incoming presidents–owe some of their expanded ranks to the massive black turnout Obama attracted. How do these people resist when Obama (or, more precisely, Obama fixers like Valerie Jarrett and Pete Rouse) comes looking for votes?
This is truly disquieting. The guiding principle of the Framers was to separate the powers, so that none of the three branches of government could become entirely dominant. Their logic was simple: A unitary government was an invitation to tyranny.
If Obama has truly taken control of the campaign purse strings of congress, (not to mention state-level campaigns for governors, etc.) then he - not even the executive, but he, personally - has achieved a level of power and control unprecedented in national history. A level of control, I might add, that I consider potentially extremely dangerous.
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