Author Topic: Behind a Bill Clinton speaking engagement: A $1,400 hotel phone bill and $700 dinner for two  (Read 312 times)

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Offline Timber Rattler

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When former presidents and other dignitaries traveled to California to wax nostalgic on the speaking circuit, they may have been demanding, but none insisted on being flown from San Francisco by private jet to a venue just 70 miles down the freeway.

That was before Bill Clinton came along.

Clinton changed the rules of political speech-making for cash. He would push not just corporate hosts but also nonprofits and universities to pay fees well beyond what they were accustomed to. His aides would turn what had been a freewheeling format into tightly scripted events where every question from the audience was screened. He and Hillary Clinton would become so skilled at churning profits out of their lectures that they would net more than $150 million from speaking alone after he left the White House.

Contracts and internal emails connected to half a dozen speeches Clinton gave in the Bay Area soon after departing the White House offer a glimpse into the unusual demands and outsize expense reports associated with bringing him to town. The events took place as part of a speaker series sponsored by the Foothill Deanza Community College District, another by UC Davis and another run by a for-profit firm. The community college hosted him again in 2012. The documents became public through an open-records request filed by the Republican National Committee amid a presidential race in which the lucrative speaking fees paid to the Clintons are being closely examined. 

(Excerpted)

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-bill-clinton-speeches-20160711-snap-story.html
« Last Edit: July 12, 2016, 11:28:42 am by Timber Rattler »
aka "nasty degenerate SOB," "worst of the worst at Free Republic," "Garbage Troll," "Neocon Warmonger," "Filthy Piece of Trash," "damn $#%$#@!," "Silly f'er," "POS," "war pig," "neocon scumbag," "insignificant little ankle nipper," "@ss-clown," "neocuck," "termite," "Uniparty Deep stater," "Never Trump sack of dog feces," "avid Bidenista," "filthy Ukrainian," "war whore," "fricking chump," psychopathic POS, and depraved SOB.

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."  ---George Orwell

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Offline Timber Rattler

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A real man of the people.  So who do you blame?  The Clintons, or the schools and institutions that actually put up with him and his staff and actually paid those obnoxiously high (pay to play) charges and speaking fees?
aka "nasty degenerate SOB," "worst of the worst at Free Republic," "Garbage Troll," "Neocon Warmonger," "Filthy Piece of Trash," "damn $#%$#@!," "Silly f'er," "POS," "war pig," "neocon scumbag," "insignificant little ankle nipper," "@ss-clown," "neocuck," "termite," "Uniparty Deep stater," "Never Trump sack of dog feces," "avid Bidenista," "filthy Ukrainian," "war whore," "fricking chump," psychopathic POS, and depraved SOB.

"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."  ---George Orwell

"If you want peace, prepare for war." ---Flavius Vegetius Renatus

Offline massadvj

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A real man of the people.  So who do you blame?  The Clintons, or the schools and institutions that actually put up with him and his staff and actually paid those obnoxiously high (pay to play) charges and speaking fees?

In general, I tend to blame the briber as opposed to the bribee.  Usually the people who pay bribes are just trying to get by and compete in a rigged system controlled by the briber.  It's the same with crony capitalism.  How are you supposed to survive if you are a bank, tobacco company, oil company, hospital (or just about any business) without paying off the politicians?  The people that make the rules are more powerful than the mafia because they ARE the law.