J-10
07-25-2004, 07:52 AM
BILLIONAIRE FINANCIER GEORGE SOROS
The new face of money in U.S. politics
Soros is spending big to oust Bush GOP paints Soros as a radical
By David Greising
Tribune chief business correspondent
Published July 25, 2004
BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Billionaire investor George Soros has come to his birthplace to meet with his global network of political action groups, but his mind is half a world away on his new passion: the defeat of President Bush in November.
So far, the man admired and feared the world over for his investing prowess has committed more than $15 million to that pursuit, serving as the benefactor in chief for two new Democratic political organizations, America Coming Together and MoveOn.Org. And he has vowed, perhaps only jokingly, that he would dedicate his $7 billion fortune if it guaranteed Bush's defeat.
His is the new and surprising face of money in American politics. His role has come into focus in the first presidential election cycle since the passage of major campaign finance legislation, the McCain-Feingold law--which was supposed to purge the influence of big money from American campaigns.
The opposite has happened.
As Democrats gather this week in Boston for their convention, they do so at a time when both candidates and their proxy organizations have raised record amounts of money. And wealthy individuals such as Soros have stepped into the shoes of the corporations and unions that are now banned from their previous role filling campaign honey pots.
Major donors historically have worked behind the scenes. Not Soros. Unwilling to let his money serve merely as the mother's milk of politics, Soros is adding his voice to the bitter charge and countercharge that now defines American electioneering.
Soros has likened Bush's use of the USA Patriot Act to the way Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union preyed on citizens' fears to control dissent. He has compared his feeling of shame in seeing the photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison with his anger over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We are victims who have turned into perpetrators," Soros said during a Columbia University commencement address this spring.
In his latest book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy," Soros, 73, argues that the war in Iraq signals the apex of America's global dominance. And Soros, who built a fortune with bold bets in the world's currency markets, likens Bush's characteristic certitude on the war to an investor enthusiastically pouring money into stocks just before a market bubble pops.
"The whole idea of boom and bust is really coming home to roost," Soros said during an interview in Budapest, where he was hosting a board meeting for his Open Society Institute, which promotes democracy, economic development and free expression around the world.
And part of that bust, he contends, will include Bush's defeat.
"By rejecting Bush, we are rejecting the Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive warfare, Soros said. "A new leader would be in a position to reverse the image of the U.S. as an arbitrary, supremacist nation."
Talk like that has prompted Republicans to cast Soros as a radical and somewhat foreign power behind the John Kerry machine.
More from here (http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N2614.ChicagoTribune.com/B1306293.5;sz=300x250;ord=2004.7.25.11.38.51.0?)
The new face of money in U.S. politics
Soros is spending big to oust Bush GOP paints Soros as a radical
By David Greising
Tribune chief business correspondent
Published July 25, 2004
BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Billionaire investor George Soros has come to his birthplace to meet with his global network of political action groups, but his mind is half a world away on his new passion: the defeat of President Bush in November.
So far, the man admired and feared the world over for his investing prowess has committed more than $15 million to that pursuit, serving as the benefactor in chief for two new Democratic political organizations, America Coming Together and MoveOn.Org. And he has vowed, perhaps only jokingly, that he would dedicate his $7 billion fortune if it guaranteed Bush's defeat.
His is the new and surprising face of money in American politics. His role has come into focus in the first presidential election cycle since the passage of major campaign finance legislation, the McCain-Feingold law--which was supposed to purge the influence of big money from American campaigns.
The opposite has happened.
As Democrats gather this week in Boston for their convention, they do so at a time when both candidates and their proxy organizations have raised record amounts of money. And wealthy individuals such as Soros have stepped into the shoes of the corporations and unions that are now banned from their previous role filling campaign honey pots.
Major donors historically have worked behind the scenes. Not Soros. Unwilling to let his money serve merely as the mother's milk of politics, Soros is adding his voice to the bitter charge and countercharge that now defines American electioneering.
Soros has likened Bush's use of the USA Patriot Act to the way Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union preyed on citizens' fears to control dissent. He has compared his feeling of shame in seeing the photographs of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison with his anger over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We are victims who have turned into perpetrators," Soros said during a Columbia University commencement address this spring.
In his latest book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy," Soros, 73, argues that the war in Iraq signals the apex of America's global dominance. And Soros, who built a fortune with bold bets in the world's currency markets, likens Bush's characteristic certitude on the war to an investor enthusiastically pouring money into stocks just before a market bubble pops.
"The whole idea of boom and bust is really coming home to roost," Soros said during an interview in Budapest, where he was hosting a board meeting for his Open Society Institute, which promotes democracy, economic development and free expression around the world.
And part of that bust, he contends, will include Bush's defeat.
"By rejecting Bush, we are rejecting the Bush Doctrine" of pre-emptive warfare, Soros said. "A new leader would be in a position to reverse the image of the U.S. as an arbitrary, supremacist nation."
Talk like that has prompted Republicans to cast Soros as a radical and somewhat foreign power behind the John Kerry machine.
More from here (http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N2614.ChicagoTribune.com/B1306293.5;sz=300x250;ord=2004.7.25.11.38.51.0?)