Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

In response to a commenter on my last post about McCain fundraisers living the “Sex & the City” lifestyle, I wasn’t being facetious, and sure, I’ll give you a quick fact (it really doesn’t take long to look this stuff up). On Obama’s July campaign disbursement form, he says he gave $4 million to a company called “AB Data.” Of course, the Milwaukee Business Journal says it’s more like $8 million. AB Data is an online campaign fundraising company whose other clients include the pot-smoking Drug Policy Alliance Network, whose own website says its policy is “to end the war on drugs.” To quote:

DPA Network is the nation’s leading organization working to end the war on drugs….. The Drug Policy Alliance Network and its partner organization, the Drug Policy Alliance, are working hard state by state to educate lawmakers about marijuana and to make cannabis available….

This is who Obama is giving his money to.

AB Data is run by Dick Swett-loving “philanthropy-expert” Bruce Arbit.

The Paris Problem was the tip of the iceberg. What the McCain campaign can ill-afford to do is further antagonize our own supporters. We need to quiet grumbling among our own contributors and volunteers about how much our hardworking fundraising consultants are getting paid. People like New York Finance Chair Tamara Hallisey, who’ve earned at least $148,000 since the start of the year. Likewise, I hear that the latest attack we should expect from the Obama-holier-than-thou crowd is that the McCain campaign is using unlimited “victory committees” to pay fundraising staff for the work they do for the official “restricted” campaign fund while John takes the high road on public financing.

Up(state) with People: Rachel McGregor fundraises in Albany

Apparently, a few people noticed in my Paris Hilton post that hedge fund king Peter G. Peterson of the Blackstone Group gave $30,800 to John McCain this spring. Wait a minute, they asked, isn’t there a limit of $2,300 for campaign contributions (for the primary, and again for the general)? Yes, but if you look closely, you’ll see he didn’t give the money to the campaign. It went to the “John McCain Victory Committee.” Entirely different entities.

The only problem is that some on the left are whining that the Victory Committee is a shell used to get around campaign finance laws and the public financing restrictions that John abides by. Specifically, they’re pointing to Victory Committee disbursements to campaign fundraisers like Tamara Hallisey and Rachel McGregor of the Hallisey Group in New York (and yes, Rachel did attend Barry Goldwater High School in Arizona!), or Corinne Lovas in Arizona. All very talented - and on a personal note, I might add, quite fetching - fundraisers. They also complain that their work is being promoted by the official campaign and then they’re funneling money to the Victory Committee.

Tamara Hallisey with the Senator

Liberal grousing that it looks like they were paid by the Victory committee for work they did to raise funds for the official campaign (JohnMcCain 2008), or complaints from our own supporters that they’ve been getting rich by double dipping from both the Campaign and Victory Committee budgets is just not a big deal, people. For example, campaign reports show that Tamara Hallisey was paid only $55,755 from John McCain 2008 since January. It was her Hallisey Group that received an additional $62,500 from JM2008 plus $30,000 from the Victory Committee. Meanwhile, Tamara’s able 26-year-old associate Rachel was paid only $53,603 from the campaign, and $13,000 from the Victory Committee since the start of the year. Did you see “Sex in the City“? It’s expensive to look good in New York and do the tough job they’re doing finding money in the middle of Hillary Clinton territory. Trust me, I took the Acela up from DC this week, and Manhattan in the summer is a sweltering hub of liberal elitism. I can only imagine what it’s like walking around here in Manolo stilettos and trying not to step on Obama supporters littering the streets.

Face it - this is a Presidential campaign. The staff is idealistic, the pace is frantic, and the accounting is inevitably a little sloppy. For example, our beancounters didn’t file campaign disbursements with the FEC for February or perhaps January, and it looks like the July Quarterlies don’t include some payments made in the June Monthly figures. Look, John’s been the first to say he’s no expert on economic issues. No matter. I have no doubt that similar - if not worse - accusations could be leveled at the Obama campaign.

My last post about Paris Hilton’s family getting angered over the recent McCain ad definitely generated a firestorm in both the MSM and on the blogosphere - even a related lead story on The Daily Show. I, myself, have subsequently had several interview requests in the last couple of days, and I’m trying to oblige them all.

Naturally, some in the McCain campaign have taken me to task for stating the fairly obvious point that putting Paris Hilton in an ad had angered her very generous family members. But my associate Jimmy did the math:

The McCain Celebrity ad has been seen by over 1.3 million people - on YouTube alone. By comparison, only 3,911 people in America saw Paris Hilton’s last film, “The Hottie and the Nottie.” (US box office gross of $25,696 divided by average ticket price of $7.08) One could argue that the McCain ad was the best thing to happen to Paris Hilton since she started wearing underwear again.

And if the controversy surrounding it means that more people are watching the McCain ad, going to the McCain website and starting to talk about John McCain again since Obama’s so-called triumphant trip abroad, then it’s a good thing for the campaign, too, and has more than made up for the little friction with the Hilton family.

John McCain will smooth things over with William Barron Hilton and Rick Hilton. Their roots together are too deep to let a little mention of Paris get in the way. People forget that as twice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committe, McCain has dealt with the Hiltons and their Indian casino interests for years (a decade ago, Hilton spun off its gaming operations into Park Place Entertainment, which subsequently became Caesars Entertainment - at one point the largest casino business in the world - and then sold to Harrah’s for $9 billion). Hilton Hotels - and its new owner, The Blackstone Group - of course, is still involved in the Indian gaming world. As well they should be.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that the new McCain ad criticizing Obama for being a celebrity has ruffled some unintended feathers. I, for one, quite liked the ad, but I hear whispers from the inner campaign staff that the phone was burning off the hook today with calls from Paris Hilton’s grandfather, William Barron Hilton (co-chair of the Hilton Hotel empire), furious that the McCain ad drew an unflattering comparison between Obama and his own granddaughter.

It seems that the elder Hilton has donated $18,400 to the McCain campaign, and $35,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the last couple of years. (Paris’s father, Rick Hilton, has given an additional $6,900 to the McCain campaign. Suffice it to say, he’s none too pleased either.)

Apparently, the elder Hiltons had breathed a sigh of relief that Paris was starting to get her act together since hitting rock bottom with her stay in jail last year, when all of a sudden the McCain ad compares her unfavorably to Britney Spears and Barack Obama.

I suspect that heads will roll at the McCain headquarters - if not within the staff, then I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Schmidt starts looking for a new consulting firm for the next round of ads. This is a reminder to my brethren at the Campaign: don’t bite the hand that feeds us.

Paris Hilton isn’t just a tabloid tart to be tossed around willy-nilly. She’s the living brand name of one of America’s most successful global corporations. It’s no wonder her grandfather’s upset: every time Paris is in the news, fewer people stay at their hotels. Try explaining that to The Blackstone Group - the hedge fund firm that bought into Hilton Hotels last year. Blackstone chairman Peter G. Peterson gave $30,800 to the McCain campaign this year. Guess who also called the campaign today?

Oh well. So much for my comped room at the Minneapolis Hilton for the convention.

Update: Here’s a few related posts to this item I posted last night. From all ends of the spectrum:

Michelle Malkin, Wonkette, Los Angeles Times, Debbie Schlussel, Huffington Post, DailyKos

The simple answer is no. But as long as the far left (and yes, some on the right) see Meghan McCain’s rare use of the keffiyeh as fair political game, then the Obama daughters’ abiding love of the Jonas Brothers should be noticed (not dwelled upon, but noticed) as well.

As you can see from the number of comments on and links to my last post, the response was overwhelmingly accusatory, vitriolic and vulgar. So I wanted to clarify a few things. Perhaps I had overestimated the intelligence of my left-wing critics when I failed to spell out in big letters that the final paragraph of my last post was facetious and used hyperbole to make a humorous point. A joke, dare we say. Sadly, one deficit of the blogosphere is that people often react to buzz-words, rather than whole sentences, paragraphs, or - heaven forbid - the context of prior posts on the same blog. Forgive me if I didn’t hyperlink every single reference in the paragraph to something contextual, ironic, or topical (usually my associate Jimmy does that for me). So, without further ado, Jimmy goes to town linking that infamous paragraph:

First Meghan McCain wears a few mis-chosen keffiyehs, and next the Obama girls will be spotted wearing Che Guevara t-shirts. At this rate, it may not matter who wins the election: the Jonas Brothers will play the inaugural ball, Miley Cyrus will be showering in the Lincoln bedroom and Chief Justice Roberts will terror-fist bump whomever he swears in over the Koran. Makes me wish for the days when the Beatles were the biggest threat to national security.

OK, I hope we’re not reading too much into this, but in the course of responding to media requests regarding the Jonas Brothers keffiyeh controversy, one of my interns alerted me to a story in the Indian press that revealed that Barack Obama’s daughters are big fans of the keffiyeh-wearing Jonas Brothers. All I can say is, “Oy.”

Now, I’m not one of those McCain supporters who believes in perpetuating ugly innuendos about Barack Obama’s faith or even his middle name. I believe Senator McCain can win in November fair and square. But….

First Meghan McCain wears a few mis-chosen keffiyehs, and next the Obama girls will be spotted wearing Che Guevara t-shirts. At this rate, it may not matter who wins the election: the Jonas Brothers will play the inaugural ball, Miley Cyrus will be showering in the Lincoln bedroom and Chief Justice Roberts will terror-fist bump whoever he swears in over the Koran. Makes me wish for the days when the Beatles were the biggest threat to national security.

By way of an update to yesterday’s observation about Disney’s popular Jonas Brothers boy band, apparently the web has picked up on this story in strange ways. On the one hand, Shawarma Mayor very generously linked to me and added his own well-reasoned thoughts on the matter. Sadly, though, he has been attacked (Fark.com) from all sides of the pop-culture media, and has issued his own eloquent update today. I agree with his points completely, so let me just quote him:

Was it a keffiya? Maybe not, but perhaps fark readers should ask themselves why are they attracted to reading about it? Yea, I know the answer – Jonas Brothers are pop stars. I stumbled into something explosive, pop and politics…..

Now to the keffiya point – I’m not going to argue in favor or against it. For some it might not be understood how a garment can be offensive, so google it and read Debbie Schlussel’s or Michel Malkin’s point of view on the subject. It should be disturbing to you if something that is offensive to many becomes very popular and those who wear it are simply clueless as to why.

I will not and would not call a person a supporter of terrorism just because he wore something, especially not when he doesn’t know what it means. I will never fault an Arab for wearing what is obviously rooted in his culture and means a lot more to him than what it has turned out to symbolize in the latest few decades. But try to grasp this point; making a kefiye a popular and acceptable western attire is disturbing to many. If you don’t respect their opinion – at least acknowledge their sensitivity.

Let me just add - as I’ve said on this blog before - that it’s one thing for Meghan McCain to inadvertently wear a keffiyeh once or twice in public. But from what I hear from my cohorts on the campaign team, John McCain has wisely counseled his daughter, and you won’t be seeing her wear it again. The difference here is that Disney is proudly exploiting the poor fashion choices of these presumptively talented young kids, even after the Rachael Ray controversy came and went. The imagineers at Disney should know better.

Of course, like Shawarma Mayor, my principle bailiwick is in the realm of politics, not pop culture. Apologies to him for having to take the brunt of the untoward comments, so if you must comment about this matter, please feel free to have your say here.

Been meaning to blog from the AIPAC conference but most of what I wanted to articulate I’ve decided to self censor for security reasons. To the lady with purple hair who spent more time at the buffet than the caterers, Passover is the unleavened bread holiday, not the atonement one. Now you know why security cross checked your badge and why you were escorted out. Better luck next time fruits of Islam.

I was one of Dennis’ first friends here in Washington. One of the few who could talk in detail with him about high school wrestling over the occasional mid-morning drink (I grappled JV back in high school). From what I hear, he was one of the most hands-on and effective wrestling coaches of his day. And I recognize that retirement can be expensive and a man needs to make a buck.

But going to work for transgender-friendly Dickstein and Shapiro? Well, I know I said I’d let bygones be bygones and focus on the present but my friend Stanley Rubin has told me stories about that operation that would make your blood curdle. And even though I fully endorse John McCain, I remember (like I remember Amalek) the dirty tricks campaign waged against my candidate at the time, Rudy.

Dennis, come on, buddy. I know you can do better. I defended you in the Mark Foley scandal, and now you’re just perpetuating stereotypes of the GOP.  We’re going to have enough trouble this fall defeating Obama and heading off another Democrat landslide.

Kudos to our good friend Debbie Schlussel for keeping the pressure on Dunkin’ Donuts over that tasteless Rachael Ray ad. Granted, Rachael is notoriously insecure about her lack of neck (so wear a mock turtle).

The keffiyeh has blood on its hands and should be as offensive to the West as the Windsor knot is undoubtedly to the East.

I must, however, take issue with Debbie on her criticism of Cindy and Meghan McCain. As a McCain campaign surrogate I know that Meghan’s wearing of the keffiyeh was personally disturbing to John, but as any father of daughters will tell you, girls at that age can’t be entirely controlled. I imagine even Debbie of Detroit made some poor fashion choices in her younger years.

At least when Pam Geller and Michelle Malkin rightly went after Rachael Ray, they didn’t drag Meghan McCain into the mud.